Fallout: Across the Sea
by the survier and the fighter
Summary: Clank has always wanted to venture past the vale of the ocean and see what remains of the world, so when he fixes up an old ship he begins his life long dream, but he'll need a crew. SYOC story, submissions are open. Updates will be once every 2-3 weeks because of life. Sorry for the inconvience.
1. Chapter 1

**Fallout: Across the Sea**

A young, no older than 6, sat by the water edge. He look out and watched the sun rise. The sun rose in the east and set in the west. He knew what was out west, and what was north and what was south but not the east. The world blew itself up a long time ago about a 193 years ago, or so his mother and father told him. And in that time the people of what once was the U.S tried to survive for the longest while, now they sort were rebuilding. To the west was a new Nation called the NCR, the south and north were still wilded but their existed towns such as Quincy and Megaton but the East that was a mystery. People did venture to and from or so they claimed but they were far and few inbetween. It could be decades since they last arrived, for all they knew their home is over run with mutants or they reclaimed the land and now it was a utopia. The boy's mind raced with wonder, it was a mystery how he even heard his name being called. "Clank!?" A woman's voice yelled.

"Yes mama?" Clank got up from the water's edge and ran over to his mother. She was young, though then again ever one in the wasteland was young. Few had the luxury of being old, but she had him at 17, his father came up, rifle slung over his shoulder. His look was a bit older than his mom. Somewhere of his late twenties. He smiled, patted his son on the head and stood next to his wife.

"We're heading out, up North to the Commonwealth. You should rest up on Besty."

"Alright mama." The two adults then helped him atop the Brahmin and began to venture north. The journey would be long and dangerous but he did not care, as his eyes closed he looked out to the rising sun one last time.

 **Thanks for reading, I'm going to post the first official chapter tomorrow. So what you should know is that is going to be a SYOC but for next month or two is going to be a sort of build up. You'll see, other things you should know is that I'll have a template sheet posted on my profile and story as well, when the Recruitment arc comes up. If you want to summit now or just before contact me. See you** **Friday**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter One**

He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'

He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'

He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'

He just hacks, whacks, choppin' that meat.

Clank was suddenly awaken as Butcher pete played over the radio. It was enough for him to jump up from his bed and hit his head on the low ceiling. "What the hell?" He almost screamed, holding his head.

"There you are." It was a woman's voice, Clank turned his head to see who said it. By his Jukebox was a woman. She was thin and small but had a wild look to her. Her hair was dirty, face nearly covered with grease and wore an old robco jumpsuit.

"Malice?" Clank said groggily. "What are you doing?"

"Just coming to wish you a happy birthday. Now how old are you now? Thirty, forty. Fifty?"

"Twenty six."

"Well you're almost there. Now come on, you need to help me open up the shop."

"Alright boss." Clank got out from his bed and stretched his body. Then he grabbed an old jumpsuit from a Red Rocket and put it on and head out from his home, a shack built where a old home used to stand, to Salem's beach wall. Hard to believe that almost three years ago this town was a shell of its former self, filled with Mirelurks, and a single crazy man. The minutemen, more specifically General Davison kept his promise on rebuilding the Commonwealth. Because of Salem's size and general romieness it ended attracting a lot more people. For various reasons of course, for Malice it was so place new, some place to lie low, for Rook he only stuck around because this was where he was born and raised, and for Clank, Salem acted as a port town, the dock was expanded so larger ships could come in and trade. That's what attracted him here. He's always been fascinated by the outside world, even as a child. None of the men had ever crossed the sea but it was interesting to hear stories of the other settlements and cites up and down the coast.

"You know the BoS capital ship came in today. Just before dawn."

"The Prydwen?"

"Yeah that's the one."

"Yearly talks are already begun huh?" Little over three years ago, General Davison left his vault and ventured into the wasteland, he wander around for a bit, and somehow became the general of the Minutemen. He help found and fix up a lot of the smaller homesteads all across the wastes. Rumor even circulate he joined every faction there was here, even a few raiders clans, he wasn't sure with the whole story on that one. But go figures the Institute being the boogeyman it was started to cause problems, so Davison and the Minutemen ended up destroying the Institute, revealing almost every synth spy and pretty much saving the world. The Minutemen did allow the civilians almost an hour to gather up their things before blowing the place to hell. For most of the survivors they ended joined together and settle down across the wastes, others fled to outposts and some just began their attacks, last minute revenge. Some damage was dealt but nothing anyone can't jump back from. For the Railroad and BoS they had a new mission, eliminate, capture or intergrate. Clank was pretty sure if Davison had sided with either faction most of the Inside would have died, maybe the Railroad would be a bit kinder but the Brotherhood would kill everyone. So for a few months the Railroad and BoS hunted for Institute members, or former members. The BoS went for scientists, specifically those who could create dangerous weaponry. They had the option to join or die, a lot of em joined for some reason. Railroad looked for synths on the other hand, and those who could help repair them. They still offered shelter to Institute scientists regardless of what they did, though this was probably so the Brotherhood couldn't get their hands on them. The only people that were a kill on site were the synth coursers. They didn't last too long one you have half of the commonwealth killing you on site. Once the last of the Institute were either killed or joined the two rivals looked to each other and open war began. The fighting was guerrilla tactics for the most part so no large battles ever took place but after a battle left a settlement almost completely destroyed Davison called for a cease fire or threatened to destroy both factions. He sat them down and let discussions run their course. After some time the two factions entered a periment cease fire. And ever since then the BoS and Railroad kept operating in the Commonwealth. Fighting still happened but it was more hushed.

"Yeah guess so." Malice said. The two kept walking until they reached a pre-war home with its garage fully opened. Inside was a mess, tools and commissions were scatter across various desks and tables. The only thing that wasn't a wreck was Clank's pride and joy, Dune rider. Cars are common in the waste, those that can drive that's a different story. It isn't easy to get a car up and running, you need parts, fuel and the know how to get them up and running. As such cars are a rare commodity but not rare enough where you don't see them. Most cars tend to be custom jobs, a frankenstein of various parts. Parts are easiest thing to find, just not for the right model. You could find pristine engine and turns out the car you want to get up and running takes a 75 model. So all parts that can't be put together have to be taken apart and made to fit with one another, or even made from scratch which is tough in of itself. Fuel is meh, you can get electric, fusion and fission, methane but most would rather have those power sources keeping the turrets and water purifier up and running so spare power is rare and the know how. Most of the time Pre war ghouls can be a lot of help but people don't like talking to them so no one learns anything. But if you have all of those things a car is easy. Most factions, lucky most raider gangs lack the resources to build cars and in times they do possess them they can only ever hobble together a car or two. The only factions that Clank can for sure say has a fleet of vehicles are the Gunners and the Brotherhood.

"God you really need to clean this place up." Clank said as he went to his work station and started to repair an old plasma rifle.

"Why would I? I like my mess."

"You live like a radroach." Clank shook his head and looked out the window to the docks. A ship was coming in. Large tug boat. Turrets were place on a couple of place. The people were what had him interested. They unloaded a few crates, broke em open talked to the dock master. His then ventured to Malice. "Have you ever wonder what's it like out there? On the open sea?"

"Oh this again." Malice put down the radio and looked at Clank.

"Hey it was just a question."

"Look you bring this up almost every other month, I get it. There's a hell of a lot more to this world and you want to see it. But it isn't going to happen. I mean when was the last time you went out and drove Dune rider? You can start now and see wasteland."

"I don't want to see this wasteland though." Clank said, Malice just shook her head and went back to working the radio.

"There's nothing stopping you from going out there."

"Yeah just I'm lacking the caps, support of large crew. Oh don't forget a ship."

"Well you made the Dune rider out of scratch."

"A ship that could travel such a great distance? That's also a hundred times larger than Dune Rider. None of the tugs or fishing vessels could handle the storms out there alone."

"Well then you should start looking shouldn't you?" Clank smirked at her words and returned to his work.

"Maybe one day."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Two**

Clank drank at the local bar, Malice offered to buy him a couple of drinks for his Birthday and he took it. The bar was the most lively place at night. As others slept in Salem the bar, named Midnight ruled. So long as the sun was down drinks kept coming. Clank watched a few boaters and mariners arm wrestled and tell stories of their travels. He looked at them with interest. Malice seeing this nodded her head with a grin. "Go on no one's stopping you." His grin grew and he ran over towards them. "Dumbass." She smiled drinking the rest of her beer.

"So I made it up to Far Harbor right, fog, Children of atom everywhere. We stop in town and get some drinks. Suddenly this giant shrimp comes out of the water and started wrecking the place. No one gets kill but a guys arm gets bit off. Turns out it was running from something, giant fuckin squid tentical comes out of the water grabs the shrimp and all I'm doing is sipping a whisky and pissin myself."

"Nice." Clank said with a smile.

"So what about you? You got any stories dry footer."

"Nah, got a buggy but haven't used in a while. Tell you this though I envy you guys. Always wanted up and down the coast. Seeing everything and all that."

"Yeah it's pretty cool. Florida a paradise, Dc is a hellhole, Point Look out it awesome if you like fuckin your cousion."

"Nah, I know about those places, what I really want to see is Europe, Africa, hell South America." The second Clank mentioned that everyone fell silent. The man who spoke first, shook his head.

"You're one of those?" Clank looked at him confused.

"You know...um?" Another boater committed.

"You want to cross the sea. Bruv I'll tell you this much. It's a suicide mission."

"People have done it."

"You know how many people try to cross the sea? How many ships don't make it, I attempted once, storm tour through us like a hot knife to brahmin butter. Only a tenth of the grew made it."

"A tenth?"

"Yeah a tenth as in just me."

"But it's not impossible."

"Sure but you'd need a cargo ship, maybe an ocean liner if you want a high chance of survivors. And there aren't too many lying around. Hell most would have gotten scrapped by now."

"Not true." A second boater said. "I saw one just south of Warrick's homestead."

"The North star right?"

"Yeah, bottom been rusted away but most of the electronics and stuff are still up and running from what I can see. We tried to scrap it but we ended up getting shot at by some ghouls. They didn't seem feral or raiders, they just seemed to want to left alone. Didn't even speak any english, spoke some weird language. Didn't seem like it was chinese, something else."

"Alright if you get the ship up and running then. What about a crew, supplies. You'd need sponsors and loyal crew members. That's the only way you realistically get a ship across the ocean." Clank shook his head sadly. "Look I'm sorry for being rude but personally if you want a chance to see the world you could join a boat crew. Atleast you'd get the chance to see interesting settlements and creatures."

"Maybe."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Three**

Malice slept in her bed naked, a few beer bottles scattered across the floor. She slept peacefully, snoring like crazy when suddenly there was a crashing sound, almost like something hit the floor. It was sudden and unexpected and caused her to jumped out of her bed. Malice went for a baseball bat she kept hidden underneath her bed and put on a blue bathrobe that hung on her door and went down to her garage where the sound was coming from. "God damn junkie raiders. Trying to pawn off my shit for jet." She crept through her home and slowly opened up the door to her garage/workshop. She couldn't see anything so she quietly turned on the light and rushed to bash the asshole that broke into her home. To her surprise it was Clank, he was working on commissions. A pot of bitter bean coffee on a hotplate, a steaming cup at his side.

"Hey boss." he said a bit surprised. Malice was tempted to hit him but she put the bat down on the shelf and looked at him with the biggest, 'what the fuck' looks she could muster.

"Clank, what are you doing here?1!" She actually had to make a large effort not to scream at the top of her lungs when she spoke to him.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get some of my commissions done before I head out."

"Where are you going, Diamond city? Bunker Hill?"

"Warwick Homestead."

"Why are you going so far south, Warwick for anything. I could get if you wanted to trade with the Atom cats or go to Jamaica Plain but the Warwick's? The only thing they got is fruit and vegetables. Nothing worth anything to us."

"There's rumored to be a huge pile of scrap just south of their home. I wanted to check it out for myself." Malice eyes widen. Scrap was common but it was far better for her to get to it first. One part that it's free and she doesn't have to go to a dealer and if she happens to find a power armor belong to assholes of steel who just happened take a nap. Who is she to judge.

"Scrap you say. Huh? Well you think I could come with? I could help identify rare tech. Maybe fix some of it."

"Sure. Don't know why though. Like you said, nothing down there." Clank grinned, she halved expected him not to want to take her.

"Gives me something to do. So what did you finish so far?"

"Well 's projector, 's engine for his truck and Nikola's Tesla trap."

"Wow you've been busy."

"Yeah, I slept for an hour or two after we went down to the bar. I wanted to go out exploring but I didn't want to leave any work undone."

"So you've been working for 4 hours."

"Most of that was spent on the engine. That was a challenge, rest only took and hour or less to do."

"Alright, Dune Rider packed up?" Clank smiled at her works and went to his buggy, which was only a few feet away. He began to rummage through the back, though most of the buggy didn't have anything in the way of doors, mostly because it looked more like it was created using pipes. But towards the back Clank took two foot lockers, welded them together and made a custom custom door. In turn creating a makeshift trunk. It didn't hold a lot but it held enough.

"I always keep two weeks rations of water and food, several magazines for the assault rifle, and I have the cell at full and the back up full."

"Good." Malice said impressed with Clank readiness. "Seeing as I had more sleep. Let me drive. Last thing I need you to do is crash us into a deathclaw nest."

"Hmph. Alright. I think you should get dressed first though." Clank looked her up and down. "Or you think the breeze won't bother yeah."

"Fuck you." Malice flipped him off and went back inside. Her home was a pre war house compared to Clank's shack. It's the main reason why he asked to store his car in her house, that and the fully stocked garage. She went upstairs to her room. The sun started to come up and let the light shine in. There she got a good few of town. A few drunks stumbled out of Midnight and passed out before being dragged off the the towns militia and throw behind a alleyway. She always loved seeing that, never bother though to get up this early. She went to her closet and looked at what she had which wasn't a lot. Not counting her bathrobe she only had one dress, a settlers outfit and leather armor. She grabbed the armor and put it on. It wasn't the best, but when she had to go out of town she generally wore it. A dress is nice for getting you drink, not so much when a feral bites you on the shoulder. She lacked the left arm, needed to buy some leather from a merchant sometime to make her own piece. The shoulder pads took a minute and the rest was easy. One complete set, made it harder to modify but easier to find. She then grabbed her welding mask and goggles, one was for combat or incase they had to deal with a brahmin, thing spit for some reason and the other was for driving Dune rider. She then exited her home and into the buggy driver seat. Clank was outside by the garage door panel. She pulled up to him, exiting the garage and he closed the door behind her. She saw him smile, and as her eyes went down to his hands she watched him put in his pocket, that made her smile a little.

"Lock everything up?" Clank said entering the passenger seat.

"Yup dog's fed, alarm set and trap are active." She threw him the welding mask. "Should block most of the noise, know how grumpy you can get sometimes."

"Thanks."

"The trip shouldn't take too long, hour or two if we stick to the roads. But when we get to Jamaica Plains we'll have to go off road, Gunners have been doubling down in the area and I don't want to get caught out in the open."

"Probably for the best." Clank said.

"Alright let's get a move on." Clank put on the welding mask and closed his eyes. Last thing he saw was the gate close behind them.

 **Alright so I'm updating because I'm moving and the xfinity guy should come tuesday but just incase I'll update today and by a miracle he does come tuesday at the new place I'll update on Friday as well. Another note is about chapter 10 will be the official start SYOC arc, or better known as recruitment arc. If you have any questions just ask. Peace.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four**

Malice drove on the roads, trying to staying as close to one of the many far more established settlements as possible. Even though the Minutemen and to a lesser degree the Brotherhood of Steel patrolled and kept the area's clear of threats the farther you went out from a settlement the more dangerous it got. None of them had the man power to patrol the entire Commonwealth, and things only got more dangerous once you passed Diamond City. Raiders weren't as a big issue as they used to be. After the Institute was gone and the Brotherhood and Railroad signed the treaty, there was only one enemy left to fight. The raiders. Davison crusade against them lasted for little over a year but it was enough to get rid of smaller gangs and cripple the gunners, those who escaped the fighting, or in some cases were strong enough to hold out went south and sometimes north to get out of the reach of the Minutemen and Brotherhood but that sort also led to a natural selection. The dumber gangs were now dead, those who relied on brute strength alone, gone. They learned they need to join together and rely on those who were cunning and smart, not just strongest. Now the gangs were bigger and more organized, and gang bosses acted more like kings and Warlords. A power structure was formed with a permanent leader on top, maybe even a bloodline as she even heard a few raider clans being merged by marriage.

Raids still happened every so often but they were ussal against other fiftems and the Minutemen southern border. Lucky even though in some cases the crusade did create fledgling nations and kingdoms they themselves were still too dumb and aggressive to ever truly come together for a greater attack, mostly sticking to light raids against the southern border or attacking one another. The only group Malice would think that could be that threat to this new peace was either the Brotherhood, she thought of them as little better than your neighborhood gang, or the Gunners, they were hit hard by the Minutemen but still manage to keep a float, seeing as they aren't exclusive to the Commonwealth but they were forced into talks with the general to become less aggressive which they reluctantly agreed to. Now the group was split into two sides. The ones in the Northern Commonwealth were more civilized, they didn't attack on site no more, they left people alone and stop attacking and harassment settlements, the ones in the South were more or less their old selves and the ones in the ganglands were themselves a nation. A strong one at that. Those ones though she wasn't sure if they were still apart of the greater whole Gunners or a new faction who just kept everything the same, just wanting to become kings and queen and she did not want to find out. She kept going down the road till she came upon the last visage of civilization was the Settlement Jamaica Plains. Easily the second most protected town south of Diamond city, the first being the Castle. A full Battalion of 100 minutemen stood watch over the town and a vanguard of twenty Brotherhood of Steel kept the town safe, if that wasn't raider deterring the the three mortars all aimed at the Gunner controlled town of Quincy probably was. The thought of Quincy also made her realise this will be the last time it would be safe to be on the road for awhile. Just before she turned off the road Malice shook Clank awake. He jolted up looking around him before calming down.

"Its ok. We're almost to Warwick, and this pile of scrap you promised." Clank yawned and lifted up the mask.

"Yeah just keep going to Warwick and we'll go south, should only a be a mile or two away." She shrugged and did as he said, the terrain was rough and rugged. They were forced to go slow and steady, go too fast and the risk of popping a tire or get stuck in the mud. Malice knew she she close to Warwick homestead before she even saw it, the smell was horrid and nearly made her barf, but as they cleared through the forest and got into view of the the farm the was a site to behold. A small wall protected the home, it encircled the entire waste treatment plant, mercenaries walked up and down the wall. Some had gunner Uniforms, others wore more unique forms of armor. Traders came in and out of the walls. It was impressive. Seeing as they hadn't left the buggy since Salem Malice and Clank could stretch her legs. Malice parked the buggy off to the side and exited Dune Rider, Clank right behind her. The ground felt nice under her feet, solid yet soft as well.

"Eh. What do you want?" A merc from atop the wall called out. "Trade or raid?"

"Do we look like raiders to you?" Malice said annoyed.

"Hey I'm doing my job here."

"No I mean I'm were emissaries of the Kingdom of Slag." She started to talk all posh and condescending. "My my little slave. If your masters saw how you treated us they'd surly behead you and turn you into mulch. Do we seriously look like raiders?"

"I mean-"

"Well?"

"Guess not." The younger merc rubbed the back of his neck while his friends all laughed at him. Clank rolled his eyes, every time something like this happened Malice went to full condescending bitch mode.

"Oh! Guess not." She snarled once again.

"Sorry about that." Clank said waving at the man. "She was raised by Super mutants, as you can tell by her manners." Malice hit him over his head and called him an ass but he didn't care. He just laughed it off.

"Yeah I can tell." The merc called back.

"Fuck yo-"

"Malice!" He yelled at her to shut up and looked back once more to the Merc. "We're just here to scrap some metal on the beach. Nothing more."

"Well good luck, careful of the mirelurks. Its their mating season so they're horny and angry as fuck. So try to keep from water's edge."

"Alright good luck."

"Thanks." Clank smiled at the man as he entered buggy's driver seat and went down the beach.

"So where is this scrap exactly?" Malice asked, keeping her eye out. "You mentioned it was south of the farm?"

"You'll know it when you see it." The buggy kept going for a little bit, a few miles down and as they went over a sand dune Clank saw it. The wreck of the Northern Star. A large smile grew on Clanks face.

"Is that it? You weren't lying when you said there was scrap. This should last us a good while, wonder why it hasn't been been collected but hey beggars can't be choosers." Malice ran towards the back and grabbed a spyglass. She stoop atop the sand dune and looked around the cargo ship.

"What do you see? How does the ship look, is it intact?"

"For the most part, the bottom is gutted, shipping containers are all over the place but it won't be too hard to take apart. Wait I'm seeing movement."

"What is it? Mirelurks?"

"No, its near the top decks. It looks humanoid. It might be scavs, raider, no too far north for raider clans. If it was anything it has to be Gunners but-"

"But what? What is it?"

"It's a bunch of ghouls, it looks like they set up shop there."

"Settlement?"

"No, or not an official one. I'm not fully sure of the situation. I don't know it's too dangerous."

"Come on we came all this way let's take a look."

"I don't know."

"Maybe we can talk to them." Malice looked at him unsure but just shrugged her shoulders nonetheless.

"Let's take the buggy and park it, say a hundred feet away and approach the ship from its right side. Most of the ghouls are on the left side at the moment. I wonder why though." There was suddenly a sounds of shot. Clank ducked but Malice stood her ground. "That explains it. Don't worry they're just shooting mirelurks, probably to eat. You know ghouls, can go a decade without a bite so long as they got a steady flow of rads but the second it drys up they need to eat, drink, piss and shit like the rest of us."

"Yeah well the only downside to the rads is that it drives them crazy a lot faster."

"Guess, could take a long time though."

"Maybe they're pre-war and just don't want to risk it."

"Only one way to figure it out but I don't want to talk to them, not right now atleast." The two entered the buggy once again and drove a bit further up. They tried to keep out of the way, and stay out of view but it wasn't fully possible. She wasn't sure if they saw them but if they did they didn't let her know. The left side of the ship was in far worse condition than the right, shipping containers were littered all across the side. Some were deeply sunken into the sand. The two of them exited the buggy and walked down the beach. The sounds of gun fire grew louder and louder, a few mirelurks, softshells and hunters ran to the other side of the ship to aid their brothers. Dumb things didn't know how guns worked, or maybe they are trying to eat their comrades. Free meal. Either way it allowed them to get closer without stirring up any trouble. They got about 20 feet away from the ship, the first thing Malice notice the ship was about 500 feet in length and a beam of 70 ft. This should of allowed it to carry a couple hundred shipping containers in its time. Plus its small size compared to some bigger cargo ships a crew of 20 to 25 would have been needed to run the thing, possibly even less. As they grew closer Malice saw the smile on Clank's face grew when suddenly a shot from a low powered pipe rifle nearly hit Clank's foot. The two looked up and saw a a ghoul. He waved his gun around screaming.

"Hei, kom deg unna. Ingen vil at du her nå går bort." The ghoul screaming drew more of his crew and both Clank and Malice looked each other confused. Clank shrugged his shoulders. He pulled out a recorder which surprised Malice, it wasn't a video but audio. This didn't phase the ghouls uptop they just kept yelling and screaming but didn't shoot at them. Clank pushed the record button and held it to the ghouls "Får du ikke det? Permisjon."

"Got it." Clank smirked and pushed the replay button. The tape spun and sputter and began to speak.

"Får du ikke det? Permisjon." The recording said, clear as day. Clank waved goodbye and left back to the buggy, leaving Malice and the ghouls confused. She looked to the ghouls then to Clank who she ran to catch up to him.

"What was that?" Malice asked.

"I'll explain it later." Clank kept moving but Malice stopped him, she grabbed his arm. He was taken back by this, he turned around and looked at her.

"You can explain now. I get you wanting to get that ship for scrap but you don't bring and audio recorder if you don't have something else in mind. You can trust me, what was this really about?" Malice was now getting annoyed but she had to keep it under wraps, he kept secretes when he wanted to surprise her but this was different. He looked at her, closed his eyes and sighed.

"Alright, you can't get mad."

"You know that's never a good start, but keep going."

"A few mariners back at the bar yesterday mentioned this ship. Said it was big, mostly intact, and had crew left on it. I'm sure if I had enough metal and electronics I could fix her. Hire a crew to fill in the ranks, not sure where that would land, could be cheap, expensive and I'd head to the ports of the world." Clank sat down and sighed. "I'm sorry I kept this from you. I just wanted to look, everyone, you, said nothing was stopping me. Might as well try"

"Haha!" Malice started to laugh, it actually really funny. "Alright, what's your plan."

"Well those ghouls aren't speaking english, something else so I figure they're the original crew. Figured that on the way here but that proves it."

"That make sense."

"Way I figure it if I can get a translator, maybe a robot or a book we can talk to them. They should know the ins and outs of the ship well enough. Maybe even convince them to join for free."

"So that would give you a crew of, twenty, maybe twenty-five." She said.

"I wouldn't go that high, it's been 213 years. By now the crew is probably half of its original size, maybe less. And that's as far as I got."

"Alright but do you plan on coming back?" Malice asked.

"I'm not sure. I would be perfectly fine with staying wherever I end up. I could even take Dune rider and keep going east until I reach Chinese shores." Malice gave him a look, it was not of disappointment or anger but of interests.

"Alright given everything I'll give you that your plan isn't half bad, half cocked but not half bad. Maybe a little stupid but I digress. You have a lot of the basics laid out, that ship is going to take a long time to fix, not to mention you're going to need a couple of ships to pull her out. Kill the Mirelurks which does solve the problem of food, water can get a little tricky. But if you have a desalinzer then you'll good, even if you get it out there there's no turning back and no promise you'll be welcomed or even find anything of value. We'll figure out more of the plan later but let's try to find your translator first."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Five**

The road to Diamond city was a short trip. It took them less then an hour to arrive to the outskirts of South Boston, much like Warwick and Jamaica Plains a wall had been erected around South Boston. One of the other main objectives of the Minutemen was to breath life back into Boston once again. The city was far safer then used to be. The Super Mutant horde and raider clans were firmly forced out, only things were left were the ferals that inhabited the boarded up homes and packs of feral dogs that roamed the streets at night but it would still be decades before any real life would return here. He once heard from some Minuteman Sargant estimates said that it will be half a century before all of South Boston was cleared, excavated and rebuilt, maybe a century for the North side would be reinhabited as well. The main roads that lead to Diamond city were cleanest and well kept and even repaired to best of their abilities that is. Since most of the Minutemen were guarding the frontiers the Boston rebuilding plan was a back seat but did not mean it wasn't being done. Small sections of Minutemen patrolled the road and a few excitation crews were helping clear the rubble of said streets and collapsed buildings. They looked through the pieces of rubble to see if they could find anything of valuable or see if something could be scrapped. There weren't many of these teams but they were noticeable and the effects were noticeable as well. For the first time in two hundred years streets were clean and not clogged with ruined rubble. When they finally reached the outskirts of Diamond city they pulled up to a well more defended gate. A Diamond city guard stood at the ready and looked down the two. "Welcome to Diamond city, looking for entry or passing through. Might I add nice buggy, knew a guy who had one. Got drunk and sold it for more booze. Got drunk again, ah Uncle Max, nice guy. Wonder where he went. He did go a little mad but that's besides the point."

"Thanks, were here to grab a bite to eat, maybe look around. Don't plan on staying the night though. I want to get back to Salem before nightfall."

"Salem, huh? I wanted to go and visit it. Alright, there's a not any real good place to house your buggy so you'll have to park it near the Brotherhood of Steel Jeeps and Humvees. I'm sure they won't steal it unless you using some pre war, advance tech."

"Nah I'm using a solar cell recharge battery."

"Cool. You can pass through." The gate opened up and the two made their way to he Green Jewel. Finding a suitable parking spot was a little hard but they ended up parking next to a couple of Brotherhood vehicles, just as the guard suggested. They then proceeded to head into the city. The site was amazing, over two hundred people called this place home, it was crowded and busy but amazing nonetheless. The two ventured down to the stairs and to Takahashi noodle stand in the middle of it all.

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka." The protection asked.

"Well I would love a lobster bisk with butter and some rolls." Malice told the robot.

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka." The protection said again.

"I'll take some noodles and a nuka cola." Clank sat down at the bar, Takahashi turning to Malice once again.

"Same." The bot said nothing more, it grabbed two bottles. Both Nuka cola, sat them atop the counter and began to make the noodles. Clank grabbed the bottle, took off the bottle cap and put it in his coin purse and a short swing of the 200 year old soda and savored the taste, letting it sit in his mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. Malice was less elegant, she took short swigs not really savoring the taste, finishing it long before he did.

"So what makes you think we can find a translator here?"

"Best place to start is the heart of Boston. If we can't find it here we can find it somewhere else and we don't even need to leave Salem. Put up a bounty and eventually some merc, trader or scav will find it." The robot put down the noodles before the two and left to work on something else. Malice started to eat and speak at the same time. "We ask around and offer a hundred, two hundred caps."

"That about half of what I saved up."

"Eh, you want to see the-"

"Alright fine. Where do you want to start."

"If I remember a robot married a school teacher around here."

"The fuck. Are you talking about a porno you saw?"

"No it happened, point is there's a miss nanny around here or something. They usually have a couple of languages programmed into them, well most domestics have a few languages in em and since she's a teaching bot."

"Higher chance that it might she can translate for us." Clank said.

"Bingo. We'll check out the school."

"No swearing. Atleast in front of kids." Clank pleaded.

"Kids swear all the time. Fuckin shithead."

"Doesn't mean we have to encourage it."

"Fine." The finished eating and payed the robot before going to the local school. The door was unlocked and the two entered the building. Several people turned their head to the two. "Sorry if we're-"

"It's quite alright. Anyone is free to watch the classes unfold and even partake in the learning. Our classes are open to everyone just let the children speak unless you have a serious question." Clank and Malice both nodded their head and took a seat in the back and true to his words were several adults. Some stood, some sat in a small desk and others took notes and listened. At the moment the teacher spoke and was teaching the children about radiation, a few guest speakers were with him. Two woman, they explained the differences between Alpha, Beta, and Gamma rays and their effects on the body. Using the monsters of this new world as examples. After they were finished the pair started to take questions. A few asked the effects on the environment, or birth defects the only one that stood out was a ghoul.

"Do you know which radiation can cause ghoulification. Is it just Gamma, Beta, a unforeseen unknown rads or a mixture of all three?"

"That I can't tell you." The woman said.

"Though I believe it could be an unknown factor. A bio weapon could have been released when the bombs fell, whether by accident or on purpose to kill off the survivors and the radiation could have merely changed the nature of the virus which then changed the genes of the survivors."

"Duff." The second scientist said.

"Hey just a theory. Scara. Oh should I say, Professor." Duff told her fellow scientist, a lustful look in her face. The second scientist face grew red and thank the class before leaving with Duff. The teacher got up from his desk and began to address the class.

"Well I want you all to thank Professor Scara and Doctor Duff for taking time out of their day to visit us. What do you say." Though they were gone the children said thank you as if they hadn't left. "Now for next hour I would all of you to go to recess." All of the sudden a dozen children all of different ages got up from their seats and ran outside. The remaining adults did the same. When the room was clear Clank and Malice went the teacher who was grading papers with his robot.

"Um Hello Mr and Mrs-"

"Zwicky." The robot said.

"Yes, can I help you."

"Yeah." Clank said. "We have something we could use identifying, maybe translated." That seemed to get him interested.

"What is it?" Asked the man. Clank pulled out the recorder and pushed play

"Får du ikke det? Permisjon." The recorder said, once again.

"Do you know the language or how to translate it?"

"No sorry." The man said.

"What the Miss-I mean what about you Mrs Zwicky? She's a robot she got to have a few language programmed."

"I am sorry, ma'am, sir. While I do speak French, English, and Spanish as well as Portuguese, I do not speak this language but using my analyzation I can tell that this is Norwegian."

"Norwegian?"

"The language of the people of Norway. A pre-war nation. North Denmark, next to Sweden. Entered a alliance also referred to as the Nordic Alliance, made up Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland. Status...unknown."

"Do you know where I can find something to translate this?"

"No I don't." Mrs Zwicky said sadly. "You could ask those nice Brotherhood scribes, a few of them came in today. They claimed they wanted to learn about Diamond City history. I'm sure they might have an idea where you can find a translator."

"Thank you for your time." Clank put the recorder back into his pocket and left the school. The children played in the street while the those adults who sat in the class talked to each other or shared smokes. Clank walked up to the ghoul who shared the cigarettes with the other adults.

"Hey."

"Hello. Want a smoke."

"Nah I just wanted to ask if any of you know where I can find the Brotherhood scribes."

"Yeah, just follow the sounds as ego." That garnered laughing amongst the group, even a smirk came onto Malice's face.

"Last I heard they were grabbing a bite at the Dugout." A second man said. "You're not railroad right? Don't want a firefire happenin. Again. Took for fuckin ever to get that bullet out of my ass." The group erupted in laughter once again.

"No we're not railroad." Clank said.

"Alright just checking." Clank and Malice thanked them and headed towards the Dugout Inn. Since it was mid day the bar was packed with people in the midday rush for lunch. Dozens of people laughed and drank, it wasn't early enough for booze but that didn't stop people from drinking a beer or two. Clank scanned the room for the Brotherhood members, several groups of people sat around tables. The one closest to them was a group of ghouls, another was some Minutemen. Nothing stood out until Clank's eyes went towards the back corner. That's where he found them. It was a small group of five. Three scribes, all younger around their early 20s, and about two regulars, maybe initiates or aspirants sat around a table. Talking. This was actually was a hell of alot better for them. As they got closer suddenly a second man, walked towards the group and shoulder check Clank. He let out a yelp which didn't even garner a look from the man. Clank rubbed his shoulder. The man wore heavy armor with a BoS symbol on his back a rifle strapped to his back and two pistols on each of his legs. Clank just shook his head and walked behind him.

"Sorry I'm late." His voice was gruff, old. Right away Clank knew this guy was a veteran of the wasteland.

"Hey Vark." Said one of the soldiers. "Saved you a seat."

"Thanks."

"What took you so long." The scribe said.

"Some waster puke parked his car next to you guys. Had to park the Humvee a little bit further away took me like five minutes to walk to the fuckin gate. If I find him-"

"Well you won't have to find me, I'm right here." Clank walked up to the group, but kept a short distance from the heavy armored BoS soldier. The man turned around and got a better look at him, he was hispanic, knife scar going down his face, and thin beard grew that was going from a young black to a aged white. He grinned at Clank, his eyes going up and down his body and made a dismissive huff. He wasn't impressed with this wastelander.

"You got a lot of nerve waster. Parking your trash next to our cars."

"I wouldn't call it trash."

"Yeah what would you call it? Garbage."

"I'd call it a marvel of wasteland engineering, no pre war parts. All post, a few found most self made. Uses a old recharger rifle battery as backup though that's only good for a mile, ten feet up hill. The main power source is a solar cell that uses a perpetual charge. Wheel moves recharges the battery. Lets me go farther, but not faster. A full cell can get itself recharge about half way so on and so forth."

"How long does the charge last yeah?" One of the scribes asked him.

"Hundred miles on a full battery, though like I said the things weak so more I carry slower and less I go but ussal. Can last me a good hundred miles, two if a majority is down hill. And that's on good terrain. But you get her on the road, or beach she can pick up speed like a deathclaw in heat."

"Alright. I'll give it to you. That's impressive, for a waster. Almost reminds me of this girl I know, Nicole. So what do you want?"

"I just wanted to ask for a favor."

"We can't give you noth-"

"It's not tech, we just need something translated." The scribes looked at each other once again.

"Translated what do you mean? From binary to english?"

"No not exactly." Clank pulled out his recorder and played it for them. They listened to the ghoul speak and when it was finished they were interested.

"What is that?" One of them asked.

"An old war language called Norwegian."

"Where did you get it?" The scribes looked at the recorder with awe.

"I found it. I think it can help me with my endeavors. If at the very least learn from others. All I need is a way to translate more of the language, data for a mister handy or a book."

"Alright." The scribe said. "What are you willing to do for us then? We can't help you for free."

"Of course. I can offer you my services, as me and my friend operate a repair shop. We are knowable of repair just about anything, or a few caps."

"Maybe. You got anything else we might want?"

"You can't be serious." Vark said.

"Hey, it's like it hurting anyone. I highly doubt it's a weapon cache, records show before the bombs fell the USA haven't bought any weapons from outside sources for over thirty years. Worst comes to worst and it was a weapons shipment it was a smugglers operation bring stuff in or about to ship it out." The scribe said.

"Alright fine." Vark sighed. "We can help the waster. So you just need it translated?"

"And a way to translate if again in the future."

"That will take some time and no there's no promise we'll find it but we do need a down payment." Vark told the two scrappers.

"For what?!" Malice asked.

"For looking, I know we're supposed to help you wasters. But that's killing synths that are still causing trouble, wiping out the last of the supers horde and holding back the ever growing nations to the south, or as we call it 'The Bandits fiftems'. Just because you asked nicely doesn't mean we'll help you. Time is a resource we can't just give away."

"That's brahmin shit you metal di-" Clank put down a small baggie of caps and a laser weapon mod.

"I had a feeling we might have to something like this. This is two hundred caps, plus a custom laser mod. Put that in and you'll get a powerful shot on par with anti matter rifle. Uses all of the cell for one single shot. Kinda like a laser musket, just more powerful."

"And what happens if I like my laser rifle more then one shot."

"Even if you don't use it someone else of your order could, maybe a sniper? You could sell it and get atleast two hundred for it. This is about four hundred caps total. More then enough compensation for your time." The man known as Vark took the caps and mod.

"Alright, where should we find you if we happen to translate the words?"

"Salem." Malice said.

"That's not in BoS patrol territory."

"We have have business in Salem, it's where our current shop is at." Malice said.

"What of the recording?" A scribe asked. Almost forgetting Clank pulled out a copy holotape from the recorder.

"We'll give you this in case you're aren't able to translate it for us in time or, we find someone else who is able."

"You have that little faith in us." A scribe said with a smile.

"When it takes a missile or two to take down your hawks then yes." Malice smirked at her remark which earned more than one death glare. Clank jabbed her in the ribs to shut her up.

"Thank you for your time." Clank said, shaking Vark's hand. "I hope you'll be able to help us."

"Well see, I'll have my boys sent your way if we find anything." Clank and Malice then left the bar and headed home.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Six**

It had been a full week since Clank and Malice went to Diamond city and asked the Brotherhood of Steel members for help, that didn't stop them from looking around, they did come close a few times. A couple of robots had a few languages in them, closest they got was German, they ended up downloading it just incase for the future but prove to still be useless. A few pre-war ghouls knew bits and pieces but not enough. One ghoul only knew swear words, claimed to have done business in the region, with the only other words was a few generic sentences like 'What is the time' and 'Where is the train' and Malice's favorite 'I'm sorry I didn't know it was your sister'. So they ended up heading back to Salem. It was a shame that they couldn't find anyone who could speak Norwegian but atleast they tried, this was the farest he had ever gone to accomplish his dream and a thought and knowledge made him smile.

Clank was fixing a assault rifle, some merc had broke it, the thing was decked out. Quick eject drum, powerful auto receiver. He was offering a hundred and twenty caps if Clank fixed her up. Thing was worth atleast three twenty-five. He wonder if it was a Gunner posing as a unaffiliated merc, eh hundred twenty caps is a hundred twenty caps. Some of the mechanisms had been shot and smashed. He was sure the guy fought against a super mutant and used his gun as a shield. Explained the damage but an easy fix. He took a few spare pieces from an old rifle he found while back and put them into the gun. Took about two hours to fix everything. Once everything was done Clank put down the gun and went over to Malice. She had her welding goggles on and was using a soldering iron on something. When she noticed Clank she stopped what she was doing and lifted the googles up to look at Clank. "I just finished the assault rifle. What's next for me to do?" She looked over at a clipboard hanging on the wall, using her finger to read the words.

"Lets see. I got a hot plate, a sniper rifle, someone wants a boat motor and a mortar fix."

"A mortar huh?"

"Small thing, Pre war, think they got it from a museum."

"Did they mentioned-" Before he finish Clank saw several BoS members walk up to the repair shop. If it had been anything else Clank would have passed it off as a squad passing through town but he saw one of the Scribes in the group looked familiar and then he remember seeing them at the Dugout inn a few days ago. "Malice look."

"Well I'll be, half expected them to just take our caps and run."

"Oh you shut it." Clank smiled and waved the soldiers over. "Hey over here!"

"Ah there you are." the scribe said. He came up, holotape in hand. "Took us a few days but we found it. Proctor Quinlan showed little interest but still had us make a copy. This is a mister handy program, plug it in and he'll be able to read and speak Norwegian, as well as translate it back to you."

"Thank you. I know you never agreed on a set amount but, how much?"

"Another four hundred should be sufficient enough payment." the man said.

"Alright." Clank nodded his head and ran inside Malice's home, to the shop safe. Behind a rather dull painting of cat Clank put in the safe combination. Six-nine-four-two, with a click the small safe door swung opened up. Inside was a mixture of caps, and rare and valuable things. Gun parts, books, the store's log, Malice's prized possession a pre war copy of Playboy, and Playgirl magazines and the post war counterpart Playghoul. His eyes went to the caps, they were leather and velvet biggies marked with numbers, fifty, hundred, two hundred. Clank grabbed two two hundred baggies and closed the safe and went back to the garage. He handed the caps to the Scribe who took them with a big smile on his face.

"Thank for, and good luck on your endeavors."

"Good day and since you're here do any of you any of you need something repaired?" Clank asked.

"Actually I do. I need my plasma pistol fixed." A Aspirant said.

"Two hundred caps." Malice said. The man grumbled and pulled out a hundred caps before turning to the Scribe Clank and Malice just paid.

"Hey man can I borrow a hundred caps?"

"Oh for fuck sake."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Seven**

Clank watched as the Brotherhood leave town, wasn't bad day at all. They got a away to translate the ghouls speech. Now they needed a mister handy but that was easy to find. To imagine this only costed him eight hundred caps, hell it could have costed him eight thousand caps and he'd still pay the toll. "So we finally got a way to translate. Now we just need a Mister Handy."

"Easy enough I think we got an old broken model down in the cellar. Remember, it was Ex-Rust Devil, dropped off a few bots and wanted them fix, never came back."

"Yeah I remember. God I hate the cellar. There's a fuck ton of spiders down there." Malice shivered.

"It's not so bad. Spiders eat bloatflies." Clank pocketed the holotape and exited the garage, he went to the cellar door behind Malice's home. A padlock and chain kept the door close but Malice pulled out her key ring and opened it up. The two then activated the light switch and headed down. First thing someone would notice as they entered would be the half finished commissions, if someone couldn't afford to pay, went missing and never showed up or just ended up dead Clank and Malice would put the commission's down here for later use. Rarely was anything finished down here. If commision were slow Clank would come down here and fix things up to pass the time or try to scrap stuff for parts. Though it was a mess it was also organized as well. Weapons were placed in lockers, some overflowing, utilities like toasters and hot plates were put on shelves, and more heavy duty stuff like generators and engines were put off to the side. The robots were near the back wall, there were a couple of them. Atleast one sentry bot, a robobrain and three Mister Handies. All of them were pretty good condition, the Devil payed them over ten thousand caps up front, and promised twenty thousands more if they ever finished, then one day he vanished. On the date he was to come over for inspection he didn't show, few weeks after that again no show. The third time Malice and Clank put the robots into the cellar. The only ones that can be considered fully finished was the sentry bot and one Mister Handy unit. He pulled out the finished one and gave it to Malice, she was better at this kind of stuff.

"Alright give me a sec. I want to run a diagnostic on the thing before we turn it on." Malice said. She opened up the control panel and grabbed some sort of device, Clank didn't know what it was nor did he care. "Alright all systems are perfect though the personality matrix is off, the thing will self aware if this is to be believed."

"Will that be a problem."

"Not sure, the personality could be nice or he could be a flesh bag hater but fingers crossed." Malice slided in a few fusion cells into the bot and watched it power up. Flames erupted from the underneath and its limbs unfolded.

"Ello -" The Mister Handy spoke with a cockney accent. "Wait a sec you aren't Mr. Matthew's take it he's dead?"

"You don't seem-"

"Yeah, yeah as you can tell I aint like the other Handy's I ain't in denial I knew what happened. And I know I was programmed by some lunny who wanted to mod me and raid those two headed cow merchants. How you think I got smashed, got fucked up by them green freaks. Damn. So what you need?"

"We need a translator, we found an old ship full of Norwegian speaking ghouls and we need some to translate for us."

"Norwegian? I already got that programmed into me." Clank's eye widen and snarl involved his face, with a hint of twitching in his right eye.

"Motherfucker, I wasted eight hundred caps!"

"You?! Those were my eight hundred caps!"

"Hahaha, I'm fuckin with yeah you twats. Nah I don't got Norg in me but seeing your little freak out I take it you got a holotape?"

"Yeah I got one."

"Well put it in. Ain't my first time. Wait is it yours? Don't worry baby I don't bite, often. But it might burn, not because me torch but cause I got the clap, haha." Clank rolled his eyes and put the holotape into the Mister Handy. It went through its ussal updating sequence and after a minute it spat the tape out.

"So did it work?" Malice said.

"Du forteller meg tisse."

"Why do I feel like he insulted me."

"Causs I did. Well you ready to go, you don't boot a man up for nothing."

"Oh I just know you're going to be fun to be with." Malice was the first to leave the cellar, Clank behind her and the robot following a close third.

"So what should we call you?"

"Mi default name is Conrad, well factory name anyways. I keep because you don't need to change your name unless it's dumb. So what are you're guy's names, my organic overlords."

"My name's Clank and she's Malice."

"Alright. So how far is this boat anyways. I don't want to be walking all day."

"Few hour drive." Clank said.

"Wait wait you got a car? Kickass. Let's get to it mate. Lead the way." They made it to the garage, Clank started to pack up some tools while Malice started to lock up shop. While they were doing this Conrad circled Dune Rider and inspected it.

"Nice ride, noticed there's only two seats. Not much of a trunk either. Where you going to put me?" True, as said before the buggy didn't have much room.

"Well about that..."

The day was coming to a close, and night would soon fall. Malice and Clank were now on the beaches south of Warwick homestead while Conrad was tied down behind them. He was complaining on how humiliating being tied down was but given the alternative of walking that far south they mustered through the insults. They came over another dune and saw the Northern Star. It was lit up from a few searchlights and fires. "So that it huh. Not seaworthy but given some elbow grease and shit ton of iron I'm sure you can get her floating again." Clank jumped out from the driver seat and undid Conrad's restraints.

"Now here's the plan, we'll go up slow and our weapons holstered. We'll call out to them and tell them we want to talk."

"Alright and what if they don't want to talk?" Conrad said.

"I'm sure they'll be willing to speak with us, and listen to what we have to say." Clank said with a naive confidence, but truthfully we was nervous and worried that this wouldn't work. He took a deep breath and loaded his weapon, a 10 millimeter pistol and put it in his pants, hiding it under his shirt. The the group then walked down towards the boat, when they got about fifty feet from the vessel a spotlight shown on them and they stopped dead in their tracks. Clank shield his eyes and looked to the ship, a couple of ghouls pointed their weapons at the group but did not fire.

"Ikke gå videre, eller jeg vil skyte Amerikansk."

"What did he say?" Malice whisper to Conrad.

"Basically he told you to stop where you are or you'll get shot."

"Alright tell them 'We mean you no harm, we just want to talk'."

"Vi mener deg ingen skade. Vi vil bare snakke." Conrad said. The second the words left Conrad's speaker all of the ghouls fell silent. They started to mutter amongst themselves. He couldn't make out anything nor see their faces to well but what he did see was utter shock.

"That seemed to have gotten their attention." Malice said. What happened next was sudden but Clank was greatful, the man in charge, maybe the original Captain yelled at his men and watched as they lowered their weapons. He leaned over the railing and yelled once again.

"Ok, hva vil du snakke om."

"He said ok."

"Tell him I have a business proposition and I need his ship."

"Han ønsker å informere deg om at han har en forretningsoppgave, og han vil gjerne bruke skipet ditt."

"Haha ok, jeg er nysgjerrig, få har noen gang prøvd å snakke med oss og ingen har lykkes med å snakke norsk. Jeg vil høre, fortell gutten det, forsto maskinen?"

"He says alright." A sigh of relief came out of Clank. Out of a thousand ways this could of ended he was glad it ended in a far more peaceful manner.

"Ask him if we should come up or if he wants to come down. I rather not be yelling all night."

"Fine. Min venn ønsker ikke å rope hele natten, han vil vite om han kan komme opp eller i det minste kan du komme til å snakke." For a second the ghoul pondered at Clank's words.

"Gutten og jenta kan komme opp, så kan du maskine, men jenta er å vente ute mens vi snakker."

"We can come up but Malice is to wait outside." Clank thought for a moment but utterly sighed and nodded his head in agreement.

"We can't alienate them now. Tell them I agree to their terms."

"Han sier ja, han vil gjøre som du spør."

"Flink." The ghoul then waved them over. Slowly and carefully Clank and Malice walked over to the elevator, or what once was a lifeboat now turned into a way up and down the large ship. It came down and two ghouls were waiting for them. They had pipe rifles at the ready. They said something and stuck out their hand, Conrad was about to translate but Malice stopped him.

"I've lived long enough to know what they're asking." She upholstered her weapon and gave it to the ghoul who smiled at her. Clank did the same, giving the ghoul his ten millimeter. They both lived up their shirt to show they didn't have any weapons though they still had to be patted down. One on the right said something to the one on the left they yelled to those on top. As the lifeboat went topside Malice grabbed onto Clank's arm and started to breath heavily and sighed a huge sigh of relief once they stopped a few seconds later.

"What don't like heights tough girl?"

"Just don't like open elevators." She shuddered as she walked off the boat and onto the top deck of the ship. First thing Clank noticed was the crew, they all stopped what they were doing and came over to watch the smooth skins come onto their ship. There was total of sixteen, including the guards and standing in the middle of them all was the Captain, cheif or whatever he was. He stepped forward and smiled.

"Komme." Clank followed the ghoul across the ship. He looked at everything. There were defenses set up, a few turrets and cover stations. The cranes that would load and unload the cargo were rusted to hell and probably isn't usable. But could be used for scrap, if things went to plan. The Captain led them further into the ship down below the deck. It was a hallway, the door closed behind them but no said a single word. They just going. They passed a few cabins which were empty at the moment but when he looked inside he saw a small room with two bunk beds on either side plus four lockers. Two, port window and two again. On the other side was a similar set up. Two bunk beds, four lockers, and a window between them. Clank counted over twenty rooms, ten on each side of the hallway and if his math was correct that was over 80 people, passed that was the rec room/ kitchen. A fully operation kitchen, kinda like the ones in those pre-war homes was on the left side corner while chair and tables, bolted to the floor. On the other side of the room was what remained of a couch and tv plus a bookshelf that laid sadly empty. The only other thing of note was the was showers, they didn't walk through it but they passed into another hallways and on the floor was tile and he could just make out the ever so shape of a shower stall. The last thing they ever pasted was the med bay on the other side. It was large as well. Clank hand went past the handle and found it lock. He curiously stopped and looked inside. The room was large as he said. There were several gurries that he had noticed, a couple of hospital bed that had curtains to let some privacy as well as a lab, that from what he could tell was fully intact and unused. He even saw some science equipment. Next thing he knew however was something suddenly shot up and snarled. It was a feral ghoul, he looked in and saw the curtains by the hospital beds were starting to rusle as the silhouette of things tried to break free from their bonds. The snarls alerted the captain who ran back and dragged Clank away from the door.

"Ikke tør å plage draugr." The Captain spoke with anger, his hand balled into a fist before letting Clank go and sighing. He continued to walk as if nothing had happened. Clank ran up to him and walked next to him.

"Um sorry about, didn't mean anything by it."

"Hhmm." The Captain stopped by a door at the end of the hall. As he opened it Clank realised that he had taken him to the Captains quarters. The room was large, it had all the luxuries any man of the pre war world. Looking like a VIP's hotel suite. The bed was a king size, off in the corner. A living room of sorts, and study, complete with writing desk and bolted bookshelf and even a private bathroom.

"Tell him this place is amazing."

"Rommet ditt er fantastisk."

"Takk." The ghoul said with a light laugh. "Bare sitte ved bordet, jeg må gripe noe." That one Clank didn't need a translation. The Captain pointed at a table as he ran into his kitchen. Clank lazily walked over and sat down, he looked and watched the ghoul grab a bottle of whisky and two shot glasses. He set them down and poured the liquid. Clank was unsure the maker of the booze but was certain they were a European brand, so hell of a lot stronger.

"Jeg burde nok fortelle deg at jeg liker å drikke når jeg lager forretninger, og jeg liker å drikke med folk hvis jeg kjenner sitt navn."

"He likes to have a drink when discussing stuff and he wants to know your name."

"Clank." Clank picked up the glass.

"Sven." The ghoul said.

"Cheers."

"Jubel." The two then clink glasses and downed the shot. The taste was smooth and burned like rad fire. The ghoul couldn't help but smile, something told Clank he hadn't had a drink like this is years. "Så først først, hva vil du ha mitt skip for?"

"What do you want his ship for?"

"To put things simple, I want to see the world."

"Han ønsker å våge over havet og utforske verden eller hva som er igjen av det." Sven nodded his head.

"Nobal, jeg antar. Men hvorfor skipet mitt? Jeg har sett mange skip reise opp og nedover kysten."

"He asks why his ship, there's a lot more out there."

"For starters the war causes massive storms there, from the few ships had made the journey to and from speak of massive waves that sink all but the largest ships. Though I'm told they only happen every few years. Guess the main reason is a bigger ship could allow for a much larger operation. I just don't want to explore these new lands, I want to study them, the people, creatures. It would be a exploratory mission but a scientific one as well."

"Han mener at et stort skip vil tillate ham å ha en mye større operasjon. Han snakker om at det er mer likt et vitenskapelig oppdrag. Gjett han vil ha å bringe ting tilbake eller kanskje ha et laboratorium satt opp. Det er det jeg gettign minst."

"Ok, fortell meg, hva er planen din nøyaktig."

"What do you have him mind?"

"So first things first we need to fix the bottom of the ship, replace a few might be tricky but there's a iron factory the minutemen have taken from some raiders. If we supply them with a few of your shipping containers and specs I'm sure they can get the pieces up and made. We'll need then to hire a few mercenaries, scientists and other mariners, maybe a few trackers and vets to fill in the gaps. Stock up on food, water and science equipment that would allow us to study the creatures, plants and people of the old world, after that we choose our destination and set sail. Come back and maybe continue this. I also had a plan of colonizing the new world if it is dead, or mostly dead."

"Fest opp skipet, gå til en stålkvarn og få folk til å lage egendefinerte deler, ansette folk, få en skikkelig mengde forsyninger, studere det nye landet og dets skapninger, og kanskje selge landrettigheter til nybyggere." Sven nodded his head and listened to every word, Clank could see his was taking things into consideration. After a moment Sven leaned back.

"Kan du love oss at du skal få oss hjem?"

"He wants to know if you promise if you can take him home?"

"There's no promising something like that, no. But I will promise I will stand by this and divert every moment of my time to getting this ship up and running."

"Han kan ikke love deg at han kommer til å ta deg hjem til Norge, men han sier at han vil bruke hvert sekund av sin tid til å fikse opp skipet."

"Ok, du fikk deg selv en avtale. Men på slutten av den lille ekspedisjonen ønsker jeg at du lager en pitstop i Norge. Hell du kan slippe oss av i Danmark hvis du vil. Jeg snakker det flytende og min...søsteren min bodde der med mannen sin. Gjett jeg kunne prøve å finne henne, om hun er en Draugr som meg." As Sven spoke he became distant, he got up from his seat and went to a window that overlooked the cargo hold. He didn't know what he said, save for two words Draugr which Clank thinks is his way of saying Ghoul and Sister, seeing as it sounded the same in english. He mentioned her, which probably reminded him of why he wants to go home.

"He said that after everything is done he wishes to be returned to Norway."

"Har vi en avtale?"

"Ja." Clank said.

"Utmerket, så i kveld drikker vi og spiser, synger og danser. I morgen skal vi jobbe som om vi ikke har jobbet før. Jubel." The Ghoul downed the entire whisky bottle in a single swing and smashed it. Clank shrugged his shoulders and threw the shot glass onto the floor and yelled with excitement.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight**

Clank was resting in one of the empty crew cabins. It had been two months since he and Malice brokered a deal with Sven, the Captain of the Northern Star. That night was filled with music, food and booze, and the morning was filled with sobbing and the sound of people throwing up and regretting their life choices. Once everyone was done vomiting the group set out to fix the Northern Star to its former glory. The first thing they did was gather up and account their supplies and tools, and broke into whatever shipping containers they could find. That proved fruitless as most were empty. They did find parts for a water purifier, which Malice and Clank quickly set up. Only other things were odds and ends that would only serve for parts. As for fixing the ship itself their first task was patching up the hull. The Cargo hold was in complete disarray from over the years, the south end was flooded and much of the floor rusted away leaving only sand. Not to mention the ballast tanks were non existent. The engines on ship were somewhat still operational, and while they did crank out power it only was enough to keep the lights and the purifier running as well as a few turrets, and even then not all could be turned on at once. Once the hull was fixed and the ballast tank repair the engines was the second priority, next was the propeller which was far too rusted to be used, they couldn't even scrap it. They no doubt would have to go to the Iron works to make a new one. How much that would cost gave Clank headaches. The only saving grace was that Sven had a couple schematics of the ship and some of the more unique parts, and while they were all in Norwegian Conrad translated them and even be so kind to copy them down for them.

While this was happening Sven also insisted that he gave them a history lesson of the ship, it was something to do during lunch and how could they say no. It turned out that the Northern star used to be a military cargo transport, the main function was simply transport cargo for the war in the middle east, mostly tanks, materials to build bases and even people. The ship wasn't even Norwegian made but made somewhere in Italy. It served a few years and soon got decommissioned and was bought by a Norwegian shipping company. Other things that Clank and Malice learned that there were only three levels on the entire ship. The top deck, the crew quarters which included the cabins, common, showers plus med bay and the cherry on top the Captain quarters and the cargo hold at the bottom. Speaking of the crew quarters, it went on for about two hundred and fifty feet, half of the ships total length. It didn't need much in the way of repair save for a few holes and lighting issues. The only other thing of note was that the Northern star was on its way back to home when the bombs dropped, Sven told them that they dropped off their cargo off in New York and was just heading home. Going up the coast for a little bit, and by the time they reach Boston a nuke had missed its mark and landed a few miles out into the ocean, well he said kilometers but he didn't know what that translated to, either way it caused a large tidal wave that caused their ship to become beached onto the sand all of those years ago.

"Clank time to get up." There was banging at the door and the sound of a voice was familiar, Malice. He was tempted to flip her off and wrap himself but he knew better then to piss her off and keep her waiting. So he got up, stretched his legs, and picked up his clothes and putting them on. Clank opened the door and saw his friend waiting for him. She had two coffee cup in hand. "Good morning."

"Good morning." She shoved the second cup of coffee to him and he took it gladly. He took a small sip and recoiled at the bitter taste but the caffeine was enough to wake him up.

"Follow me." Malice said. He only smiled, and followed her down the ships halls. As they walked she looked over to him and spoke once more. "How was your rest lazy?"

"Oh you know too short, too cold and too few women."

"I'm sure once the ship is fixed, atleast you'll get two of those three." Malice said.

"Oh and not three?"

"You can have a warm bed, and long rests but I don't ever see you sharing a bed. Unless it's with a dog. Maybe a bitch." A laugh erupted from her and he began to snicker.

"So anything happen last night?"

"No, night crew killed a mirelurk, check and made sure the hull had no new breaches. None if you wanted to know." They soon found themselves in the kitchen, or commons depending how you look at it. Most of the crew sat around the the various tables speaking to each other about different things. All eating breakfast and getting ready for a hard days work. Mornings were always like this, everyone would wake up a hour or two after sunrise get something to eat and start the long arduous work of patching up the hull. A few of the night crew passed by, tired looks in their eyes. Clank did not envy their job, no one dared work at night. Mostly because it's hard to see and stuff, and a lot of creatures are active at night so last thing anyone need is someone wielding and getting attacked by a mirelurk. Atleast during the day you can see the damn crab coming. Night crew was just patrol and make sure nothing gets in. Malice can be considered part of the night crew since she wakes up an hour before sunset, but here her job was finance,and inventory. Almost like the quartermaster. Once that was done she'd wake up Clank and they discuss everything that happened the day before, before he'd leave to repair the hull. They soon reached the showers, and passed the med-bay. Clank stopped in front of the door like he did before all those months ago and as he looked inside nothing happened until suddenly the door open and nearly hit him in the face.

"Går det bra med deg?" The ghoul asked all concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It didn't hit me." Clank smiled and nodded his head, showing the ghoul everything was alright. Though none of them spoke each others languages well, body language made up for ninety percent of communication when Conrad wasn't present. The ghoul smiled and left. Clank looked into the med bay once again and let out a sadden sigh. Clearing out the ferals was something Clank and Malice were not present for, there was over six of them in there. The crew took their comrades to the beach and...and six shots rang out across the morning air, and as the sun set. Six red dots could be seen in the midnight sea. Clank offered his apologies to Sven, but he merely told him that they were already dead, they just delayed the funeral. He even spoke of the first man he saw turn into a 'draugr'. It wasn't sudden but rather slow. He would lash out, as if going wild at the most odd moments and then one day he was animal. No one could do it, put him down. So they ended up putting them in the med bay, the first few they tied down in the beds in hopes to find a cure but as time went on, and decades passed they just were throw in. He could only shake his head and keep walking. Soon they reached the Captains quarters, the door was wide open and Clank could see Sven sitting at his kitchen table, clipboard in hand and drink bitter bean coffee. He didn't even notice the two humans enter the room and sit down at the table for a full minute. When he did finally notice it was only because he looked up from his notebook.

"So what are you looking at?" Clank asked.

"Hva ser du på?" Conrad yawned as he said it got up from his recharging station, in a blue bathrobe of all things around his metal body.

"Conrad what the fuck are you wearing." Malice said.

"What? This is my sleep wear."

"And where did you get it?" Malice said crossing her arms.

"I bought it."

"Bullshit. I keep tabs on all of our caps, and we don't have enough caps for you to take and trade for a pre war bathrobe. So I'm going to ask you this again, where did you get the bathrobe?"

"Ok look. I bribe the guards at Warwick homestead with a few bottles of booze, went inside and stole the bathrobe when she was taking a shower."

"You little perv." Malice said disgusted at the robots actions.

"Hey, all I did was nick it from her. I didn't look at her naughty bits."

"Why do you even need a bathrobe?" Malice asked the robot.

"Cause I want one."

"You're returning that by the end of the day, and you will apologize miss Warwick. Got it." The robot swore under his breath. "I said got it?"

"Yes ma'am." Conrad said sulking. As he floated towards the kitchen Clank looked to Malice. A confused look on his face.

"What do you mean we don't have enough caps? We have over ten thousand caps when we came here." Clank asked his friend. Malice rubbed her neck and let out a huff.

"That's what we, I wanted to talk to you about. So let me explain, for the most part we have the raw materials, we just don't have the tools, spare parts, and tools to make spare parts we need to refine the materials. At best we can make sheet metal from scratch, but we do not have the ability to make a fuse, wiring, parts to fix the turrets. We have to buy those things and we have been buying them by crateloads."

"Why haven't you told me then?" Clank asked. Malice shook her head again.

"We just been so busy, I knew we'd need more caps but I didn't think we'd need them so soon. After we cleared out from Salem and brought everything back here I-"

"How much?"

"What?"

"How much, how many caps do we have left?" Clank asked.

"A little more than an a two hundred caps."

"How?"

"As I said, fixing a ship like this isn't cheap. The oil we use for the blow torches alone, an ounce of motor oil goes for four caps, a gallon weighs about 8 pounds. So gallon of oil costed us over five hundred and twelve caps, we had too buy over three gallons. Granted we haven't used them all, but my estimates say we'll need them for sure. Turret parts costed us another five hundred. Tools, spare parts and crafting stations costed a lot. Not to mention the forge we had to buy for some of the more unique parts. Blow torches alone cost 15 caps, and we only had two, so I had to buy another ten which ran up-" Malice sort of went on, almost as if she had to defend herself. Seeing this Clank quickly felt bad for his friend. "Don't get me started on the medical supplies I had to-"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I knew we were going to run out of caps, I just didn't think it happen so soon." Malice sighed and took a swig of her coffee, not before pulling out a flask and dumping a ungodly amount of an unknown liquid.

"Apology accepted. And to be fair, it's not like the hull is our only project, as I said. We have electric, the engine, propeller and the ship's side door, plus the ramp-." Malice chuckled. "And we do have another problem."

"Which is?"

"Supplies, materials other than steel, man power."

"What do you mean man power?"

"With us combined there's eighteen people here, granted four are on night watch and Sven, make sure the day to day is in order. So that leaves thirteen people to help fix the ship. If this was a small boat that would be more than enough but the ships almost five hundred feet long, these men are sailors not engineers at our current rate it will be ten years before we can be even consider sea worthy."

"So what then, we give up?" Clank said.

"No but we need help. That's all."

"We don't have enough caps though." Clank said.

"Well me and Sven spoke and we decide we can start working at other places and pool our caps. Once we get enough caps we can restart the project and maybe even bring in new blood." Malice said.

"Or you could find a sponsor to finance your little endeavor." Everyone turned their heads to the kitchen as Conrad played with the coffee maker.

"What?" Clank said.

"You know a sponsor, a person/corporation that gives you money exchange for endorsing their brand. Pre war companies did it at races, and tv shows."

"Yeah the only thing is we can't just go to Germany and tell them to shop at Fallon's Basement." Clank said.

"True but you can bring things back for them, let me explain." Conrad came over to the table and stood, or floated in front of the group. He spoke both in English and Norwegian, speaking in English first and Norwegian second. "There's many factions here in the commonwealth, The Minutemen, Brotherhood, Merchants, Gunners, Raiders. All of them have what we need, caps, manpower and resources to spare. What I'm suggesting is that we appeal to these groups and ask for their help. In exchange we can give them intel, resources, tech, hell bring back a animal for an exotic pet."

"So who do we ask then?" Malice asked the foul robot.

"Everyone we can, well not literally but-that's for you guys to decide." Clank ponder at Conrad's word found them sound and not unreasonable. He was right, they need extra help and a sponsor was the best option they got, unless they wanted to rob the BoS blind. Granted he was pretty sure Malice wouldn't mind doing that.

"Well Gunners and Raiders are out of the question, they're too likely to stab us in the back and take the ship for themselves." Malice said.

"What about the Minutemen?"

"Hmm, those guys are honest. And might be interested, I could see Davison sending a couple of engineers and a few thousand caps our way. But the cold war with the Gunners, patrolling the border to the bandit lands, and keeping an eye the Railroad and Brotherhood of steel. They're stretched things thin already. So what we get is very little. If we get anything at all."

"Alright what else, the Merchants?" Clank said.

"A bit harder, a caravan only willing to invest caps in something if they know they'll get a return. Doesn't mean they won't be interested, same with Minutemen, they'd be interested so I can see them putting some caps and supplies our way."

"So that also leaves-"

"The Brotherhood." A disgusted look come onto her face. "I'm sure they won't help us. For a dozen reasons. Starting with we're working with ghouls, and I doubt there's anything in the old world that would interest them."

"But if we got their help-"

"We would have some access to the most advance tech in the waste. That could help us speed things along. Engineers that know what they're doing. Factory refined material. Industrial tools and machinery. We might be able to cut the time down from ten years to one. But that's just a pipe dream."

"That's no way to think. Sure the BoS are kinda of dicks-"

"Kind of?"

"Alright they're huge dicks. But that's besides the point. I say we ask them all."

"Alright you can them but I'm not going to talk to those steel brained assholes. I have no desire to talk to them but I won't stop you either."

"Good because we might have to split up on this one. We need to finish this now, I've waited for my entire life for this journey and Sven waited several." Clank looked down at the old table sadly, unable to look either Malice or Sven in the eyes. "We cover more ground this way, and we'll be able to get back to fixing the ship as soon as possible."

"Alright we just need to figure out who goes where."

"Easy I'll take the BoS, I don't have much of a problem with them. And as a engineer of sorts I think I can appeal to them on that end, play into the ego tech. You, will have to deal with the Minutemen. You know a couple, I mean slept with a a few-" Malice smacked Clank at his comment and smiled.

"Atleast I try to get laid, you only get some once a year."

"Yeah on your birthday." Clank smiled,.

"Really?" Conrad yelled. "I know I like to play the part of 'perv' but at least that's a joke."

"Sorry, in all reality. Malice does have a couple of contacts with the Minutemen and she is on friendly terms with alot of them. And Sven, as well as a lesser extent Conrad. Can travel to Bunker Hill, maybe you can convince Stockton to allocate a few materials. Mentioning the possibility of opening a new market can get someone interested. Sounds like a plan."

"Yeah, a bit half cocked." Conrad said.

"Det er alt vi har." Sven said.

"I think we can pull it off. Get a sponsors or two, hey maybe if we're lucky we can get a few other sponsors from private investors. When do we leave?"

"Let's make it two days, gives us enough time to prepare what we'll say and get everything in order."

"Alright, you should head off. Crew should be starting today."

"Yeah yeah." Clank down the coffee, burned a little but the warm liquid felt good as it went down as well. As left Malice and Sven got up from the table and to the window that looked over the cargo bay. A few ghouls were putting up a new wall on the starboard. Two months ago the entire cargo bay was one bad day from collapsing now. Many of the rusted holes were patched and painted. It was far from complete, but it was an improvement.

"Tror du virkelig dette vil fungere. Sponsorene?"

"Do you think it will work?" Conrad said, translating Sven speech.

"I'm not sure."

"Well I hope it does. I mean I did suggest it. Anyways. Hun sier hun håper det gjør det, jeg tror det vil."

"Likevel ser du ikke ut til å ha mye tro."

"You show little faith."

"I was never one to put faith in the under dog. I learn when I was young, sometimes you have to give up. Not to have faith in what is unlikely. That's how scientists think. Or the more cruel and cynical think. But Clank, this was his dream ever since...forever, he has an explorers heart. He's the type to put his last cap on the underdog if he thinks he can win. He's not naiviie or childish but he has...has something that in the wasteland is rare. Hope. And because of that he gave it to me."

"Or an STD when you two-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll dismantle you piece by piece. It has two work because he knows, or thinks it will. Even if we don't get a single cap he will work day in and day out, until this tub float on the open sea. Two days we ride. Let's get started."

 **Sorry for the late publish, I've just been busy. Since I moved I've been studying for my permit, now I'm just going to go try to get my license. And since we're so close to the recruitment arc I should note I'm going to look for 10 oc and my writing will stop. I'll wait one month, if I don't get the 10 OC I need I will allow for people to summit another character to fill in the ranks. So at most there will not be an update for two months. Fair warning, right?**

 **And at worst during the break I'll be updating the chapters with fixing spelling mistakes and small changes to make the story make more sense.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Nine**

Clank, Malice, Sven and Conrad all rode in Dune Rider, neither was it comfortable or easy but neither did anyone complain. Even Conrad kept silent as he was strapped to the back. They traveled to the Castle, the main operation center of the Minutemen and it away its capital. There wasn't much sign of life on the road towards it, not until they came towards the town just outside of the base. New Quincy, as some called the town, officially though it had no name, merly another part of South Boston. They kept going until Dune Rider stopped just outside of Andrew station. A few guards were watching the Buggy pull up but said nothing. Malice then proceed to climb out and as she did Clank grabbed her arm, she stopped for a moment. "Good luck in there. Win or lose, doesn't matter. All I can ask is that you try." He said.

"Thanks. And I will. I promise." She smiled. "Drive safe ok?"

"Will do." Clank then procided to drive away and Malice waved goodbye. As he went out of site she turned around and looked at New Quincy. The towns origins were like any other. A large group of pre-war building, mostly intact. People needing a place to stay. There weren't many walls and that was on purpose. It was meant to be a testament of the Minutemen, of how even they don't need walls to protect a settlement anymore. Granted Andrew station was heavily protect itself, though incase of an attack the old subway was to be a emergency shelter for the settlers here. Malice started to make her way into town. Minutemen, and their families walked about. Children played in the street while women hang their laundry on wires, between their homes and soldiers walked with their weapons strapped to their backed. She remember hearing about this place before it became New Quincy. The town once housed a couple raider gang and a small super mutant infestation. That was cleared out pretty fast once the Minutemen set up shop again in the Castle but they didn't start to live in the town just yet. As Davison influence grew many recruits left for the Castle to be stationed here, atleast until they were needed but it became more than that. Whole families were brought trying to stay behind the Castle's well protected walls and as one can guess they were soon reaching maximum capacity. To combat this Davison opted for the Minutemen to clear out the town and erect a few walls around a couple of homes, to house the families and over flow of recruits in training. But even that didn't last long, more people came to the Castle, more families were brought and soon the entire town was claimed as a new settlement. New Quincy, in honor of old Quincy, the Minutemen's greatest failure. But unlike old Quincy they learned from their mistakes and were more united than ever, plus the overpass that watched the town had a small vanguard of minutemen to keep watch incase the Gunners of Old Quincy decided to attack, and incase they took the overpass, rumor said that explosive charges were in place to take it down so they couldn't have it or use it and slaughter the town so mercilessly. Never again.

Malice could only admired the town as she passed the homes. She was greeted by many settlers who said 'Hello' and 'Good day' and she said them right back. She kept walking until she reached Ivan's. The Diner was repaired and the broken sign was put in the middle becoming the new name of the shop. Inside a waitress was serving a couple of traders lunch, passed that were a bunch merchant stalls, selling various things to the soldiers who went into town for patrol, or just to visit with their families. Pasted them was the Castle itself. The fort was huge and impressive. The once ruined walls were repaired to its former glory with the sole exception of new gate being added. Malice took a deep breath and walked towards the gate. As she drew closer she stopped just short of the two guard towers. In each was Minutemen, one was a black woman and the other was an asian male. They looked down at Malice, the black woman leaning over the rails.

"Hello. Fine afternoon we're having." Malice said to the two guards.

"Hello, what do you need?" The man asked.

"And before you ask, all recruits are to report to County Crossing, and go to the National guard training yard. You sign up there and get straight to training. As requested by the General, we have enough recruits training here as is." The black woman said.

"I'm not here for recruitment, I have business I wish to discuss with the General."

"Merchant?" the man asked.

"No not quite. I'd like him to help finance something. I'd just need a few moments of his time."

"Look lady, he's busy. From the talks with the Brotherhood and Railroad, directing the troops and talking with all the large settlements about setting up an actual government. So head off and take your-"

"Alright well I'm sure the Brotherhood would like to finance our expedition to the old world and if the rumors are true. Vast wealth of tech and material, untouched by human hands should be there waiting at the ports." Malice turned around and slowly walked away. "Three...two...one...fuck."

"Wait." A feminine voice yelled. Malice turned around, trying not to smile but a grin was still ever present on her face.

"What was this about traveling to the 'Old World'?"

"Long story short, a friend of mine, colleague, is repairing a cargo ship. We just need help, someone to finance things. That's why I'm asking for General Davison's help." Malice explained.

"She could be lying." The man said, a little too loud.

"True but what she saying is interesting."

"Fair. Do you have a name?" The man asked.

"Names Malice." The second she said her name aloud the woman face lit up.

"Wait do you know Sargent Asher?" The woman asked.

"Yeah, actually. I fixed her laser musket for her. And couple other things. She here?"

"No, she's stationed at Sanctuary Hills last I heard. But she spoke of this talented girl, fixed her musket and even made it more powerful. Took her only ten minutes, a diamond and a foot of copper wire."

"Yeah that was fun. We were pinned down by a group of super mutants in an old jewelers, and it was an emerald not a diamond. Makes the laser shots green." Malice smiled. "It's hell of a story but it takes three shots of whisky to tell it right. I'd love to tell it to you guys sometime."

"Alright, Asher's a friend of mine actually. Tell you what, I'll let you in and see if I can get you a few minutes with Davison. No promise he'll listen. Now we're going to have to pat you down and take all of your weapons."

"Pat away. Didn't bring any." The man and woman played a quick game of rock, paper scissors, with the girl losing as she play rock. She rolled her eyes and climbed down from her tower, Malice waiting for her. Malice's arms to her head, and legs spread out. The woman did a quick frisk, patting every part of her body. Putting her hands into her pocket.

"She clear."

"Told yeah." Malice said.

"Alright stick close and don't wander off, alright? This will be quick."

"Yes ma'am." The woman motioned for Malice to follow behind her. They came up to the newly constructed gate and Malice could only watch in awe as the woman waved at the men up top and saw the Castle gate open up. It was sort of like a garage door, metal shutters went up and the path into the castle was accessible. They went into the courtyard. A older woman off to the side was yelling at some young recruits while they all stood at attention. But she had no time to admire it, they walked into the old forts halls, stopping at a wooden door. The woman knocked on said door and took a step back. When the door open first thing Malice saw was a younger black man. Preston Garvey.

"Can I help you?" Garvey asked.

"This woman came to the gate, she claimed to have a business proposition. Talking about crossing the ocean. Thought maybe Davison would be interested to see what she would have to say."

"I'm sorry the General-"

"It's quite alright. Let her in." A calm, almost soothing voice spoke.

"General?"

"Preston, after two months of the Brotherhood of steel, and everyone yelling at one another I could use something to distract me. Besides aren't you a little curious what she has to say?"

"I guess."

"I'll let you be then General." The woman gave a quick salute and wandered off, Malice walked up towards the General's desk. She stood waiting to be seated.

"Please, have a seat." Malice then took a seat. She stuck out her hand and smiled as he shook her hand..

"Malice, it's a pleasure to meet you sir."

"Albert Davison, likewise. So, tell me about this business proposition you have."

"To put it simply I need your help. Me and my friend Clank are fixing up an old cargo ship, the Northern star. We have started to run out on caps and running low on materials. Granted we have all the steel we'll ever need but we need manpower and other resources. And I think you could be a huge help to us."

"Alright, where is your friend? This Clank?"

"He's on route to attempt to speak with the Brotherhood for the same reason, as well as Sven the old captain of the ship is going to Bunker Hill to speak with the merchants there. I apologize if this offends you. I mean no offense."

"Sven?"

"We struck a deal with the surviving crew of the Northern star. If they help us fix the ship, we'll eventually take them back home to Norway."

"How many crew members do you have."

"Eighteen, us included, but they're not engineers, they're sailors. Who can't even speak english. My best guess at our current rate it will take ten years. With your help we can cut the time down by years, and I think you'd be interested because. Who knows what we can find." Davison nodded to each of Malice word, but she could see it in his eyes that he wasn't interested. "I know this seems crazy but it's also the chance of the lifetime, we just need caps, men and materials."

"I'm sorry, as much as I'd love to help fund your project we can't spare our people or supplies. Sorry this was for nothing."

"Wait-"

"Ms Malice-"

"Can't you see this is the greatest opportunity to help people, learn from others. I can finally help people out in the world and not some lab under the ruins of CIT."

"You're from the Institute?" Davison, even Preston Garvey who seemed a little dismissive of the idea first started to show a renewed interest.

"Yes, I was born in the Institute. My mother and father were mechanical engineers, mechanics you could say. Not bio engineers who worked on the FEV virus help making those damn green skins, or those who made the synths. They took apart advance tech the Institute found and help put things back together, get them working. It wasn't glamorous but they loved it, and they gave that same love to me. I was a bit like my friend Clank, more ways than one but that's not here or there at the moment. I never fit in, I like building machines and fixing them, the super science never really interested me and I never saw the surface as a hellhole but as a world to explore and learn from. Those in the Institute look down on the surface, thought of you all as subhuman, something to be controlled and I disagreed. I thought we should work together, not let a single man decide, we each have a voice. I was out spoken but I was mocked for my views and one day I had enough and left. Few leave the Institute and the most that do run, and I was no different. So seven years ago I set the transporter to take me as far as away as possible and I ran east, for two years I wander. I wasn't blind. I studied the wasteland back home and was rather prepared. In away I fit in more here then back there. I drank, fuck, built to my heart's content. Never stayed in one place too long, just incase they came after me but never did. So I decided to come back about five years ago, and I met Clank at a bar fixing an old toaster. Couldn't figure it just out and I helped him. We became fast friends and we traveled around, living out in this old buggy he rigged up. Before setting up shop in Salem two years ago."

"Interesting story, wish I had popcorn." Preston said with a sly grin.

"Let her speak. Though popcorn would be nice. Haha."

"I'll be frank, the Northern star isn't my idea but Clank's. He's always wanted to travel the world, see it and help it. He got the wander lust from his mother, who like me left the Institute, she desired to learn and discover out in the field then be in a lab. She was only sixteen when she left, and she fell in love with a Caravaner. From what Clank told me she got pregnant not soon after. When she was recalled they told her she'd have to abort the child but she refused which ended up getting her blacklisted, letting her stay on the surface. When Clank was born she taught him everything about fixing machinery and the history of the world."

"Hell of a woman. Wish I could meet her. Sounds like someone we would need." Davison said.

"Same, she died about four years before I met clank. They came, took her body and left. I have no love for the Institute and I thought the synth program was evil in many ways. Freewill was present in those beings and they treated them like slaves, and taking people from their beds! I hated that the most, Clank has no love for them either and we harbor no ill will towards you for what you did. I rather respect you for it. So what I'm getting at is, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I understand but don't you want to know what's out there? There could be a nation that can help us, maybe there's nothing left but ferals and a few sane ghouls but we'll never know if we don't try. And if you say no that won't stop us, well ask more and more. Work ourselves to the bone to finance this expedition. But I promise you if you help sponsor us we can bring back-anything you want." Davison leaned back, a huge grin on his face.

"Alright I'll admit that was interesting and making it more personal did help. Alright, I'm willing send some caps, materials and engineers your way. If you do finish we can't spare people to go with you but we can spare people to help you, if that makes sense." Davison explained.

"So that's a deal?"

"Well I am going to send a few men to investigate the ship and have then report back before I can officially sponsor you, but if it does look promising. We just ask that you write everything down, so we can see if we can go back for anything that can help us here. "

"Thank you."

"But of course, I'd open a bottle of brandy to celebrate but something tells me I'm going to get a headache from Max soon about this."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh don't worry about. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. You mentioned that your friend was heading to speak with the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah. He should be arriving at the airport any minute now."

"Well I was going to travel to the Prydwen myself for the closing of yearly talks. Took a bit longer then expect this year. Should have only lasted a month, but ended up lasting two. Guessed you got pretty lucky. I can take you with me if you like."

"Actually that would be nice. I'd be able to meet up with Clank and not have to wait for him." Davison got up from his desk and left for the door, Preston followed and Malice was behind him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Ten**

Clank was alone. He dropped Sven and Conrad off at Bunker Hill little over half an hour ago and now he was heading towards the Boston Airport. The closer he got the more Brotherhood soldiers and outposts he saw. He was stopped several times and asked his business, he would say he wish to speak with the BoS commanders about a business opportunity. They'd always look at each other and search his buggy and would find nothing. He actually half joked if he could just get a guest pass on third time he was stopped. Eventually her reached the Boston Airport, or the Brotherhood embassy, depending on how you saw things. The town outside of the airport was still in ruin and half sunk, not once had they tried to fix things up. He quickly stopped at the entrance, like always a guard greeted him. "What is your business here waster?"

"I come seeking to speak with the Commanders and leaders of the Brotherhood. I have a business opportunity that I think they'd be interested in."

"Alright I'll bite what is it?"

"To travel across the sea and survey the old world. As well as collecting tech and materials to bring back. We have the ship, some of a crew, it just needs a lot of repairs to the hull and a replacement of the blade." Clank said. The guard had a face mask on and yet he was sure interest had overtaken him

"Alright wait here." Clank watched as he moved to a ham radio put off to the side and spoke into it. Clank could hear what he had to say. "Hey I got a guy here, and I think you'll be interested in what he has to say. Is the payroll guys here. What's his thing? Oh he wants to travel the ocean, claims got the boat just needs some stuff, so is quartermaster here? Huh, he wants to talk to him. Yes sir. Alright follow me."

Clank sat in the Vertibird as it took him up to the Prydwen. He was disappointed that he couldn't enjoy the view or the ride as this was his first time in the helicopter but he was glad he wasn't told to fuck off first second he mentioned he had a business opportunity. They somewhat took him seriously. The vertibird docked with the Prydwen and when it was complete Clank and the soldier got out, waiting from them was a african american man. He wore a nice uniform which must of meant he was in charge because the BoS, plus the soldier escorting Clank stopped in his tracks and saluted the."Captain Kells?! What are you doing here sir."

"I heard over the radio, someone came to the Prydwen, my ship, wishing to discuss a huge business opportunity with the leaders. And if our reports are correct we know this man."

"Wait what?" Clank said.

"Never mind that, Elder Maxson has requested us in the viewing room and he sent me to fetch you. You're dismissed soldier, head back to your post."

"Sir yes sir." The soldier headed back into the Vertibird and went down towards the airport."

"Follow me." Kells said walking towards a door at the end of the catwalk, Clank ran up to catch up with him, staying a step behind him. Never next.

"I wish to thank you. For listening."

"Don't thank us yet. Elder Maxson is constantly barraged by offers of third parties wishing to be funded by the Brotherhood."

"Really? Is it that common?"

"Well yes, most never get past the the quartermaster, and few ever gain the interest of Maxson himself."

"How many have gotten funded so far."

"Three, but none have ever tried to cross the sea. Closes was a expedition into Canada."

"How did that turn out?"

"They were wiped out by Polar Ursa."

"Huh?"

"Think of the Yao guai of the Capital wasteland, but bigger and more angry. And snow grey fur. Did bring back the location of an old military base, huge place. Buried under snow so we decided it better to hold off on exploring it. Point is that you gained his interest. Something only a handful of people have ever accomplished." Kells lead Clank further into the ship until they reached the observation room of the Prydwen. In there Arthur Maxson himself waited, as well as a woman who never left her power armor frame and another man, white, a bit fat.

"Hello." Arthur never turned around, he kept looking out the window. His eyes gazed upon the Commonwealth. "When I heard about a scavenger with a business opportunity over one of the channels I was dismissive of it, but when they added 'he wished to cross the sea' that sparked interest. Sailing, even boats aren't high on the Brotherhoods agenda. As you can tell. They're primitive and rarely seen major upgrades. And yet nothing more has been so important to human exploration. We know little of the ruins of the United States, there could be threats everywhere and we never know about them. Even if they were only a hundred miles away. So what makes you think we should look across the sea?"

"Simple, we don't know what out there. There could be more groups like the Institute, those who play with the FEV with reckless abandonment, making things like damn synths or super mutants." Arthur Maxson head actually picked up and he turned around to look at Clank.

"I suppose that true. But even then that's halfway across the world."

"So? If you learned that a mad man in Germany was planning to create a race of genetically modified organisms to become the master race wouldn't you try to stop them. Even if you were in China? These things threaten us all. Plus if no ones there atleast you can take the tech from the dead and not risk a lengthy war."

"The United states was easily the most advanced country in world, with only China second. And we're at I doubt you'll be going to China anytime soon." It was the woman, the one in the power frame spoke with annoyed look on her face.

"Well that is true it should also to noted that corrupt politicians wishing to line their own pockets sold tech and weapons to others who could afford it. Sometimes it was governments, sometimes it was crime families."

"And you know this for certain?" the claimed.

"While me and my friend Malice were trying to find away to translate something, several Pre-war ghouls who used to have government positions and mentioned that every so often a crate of weapons, sometimes assault rifles, sometimes laser weapons would be ship of to Europe or South America and in return they'd get gold bars, platinum. Even one claimed they got drugs in return. Going off that atleast once some advance tech was traded, something you'd rather no one else got their hands on. Now I must ask you something. Captain Kells mentioned you knew me?"

"Hmm, we heard rumors that a small group of people were fixing an old cargo ship, the Northern star. Do not worry, we only surveyed you and saw you had nothing of value and were not a risk to the settlement of Warwick homestead. They, or atleast one person thought you were a group of raiders wishing to become pirates. Obviously that man was an idiot but we had to check."

"Of course that makes sense."

"What can we say, we rather not let one of the bandit kingdoms have access to a ship of such caliber." Kells said.

"So let's get it in the open, you know most of the crew is ghouls then."

"Yes." That seemed to cause some displeasure among the Brotherhood. None said anything but their faces indicated they themselves were not too pleased.

"Is that a problem? Will that effect anything?"

"No, but I wanted to hear it from you. You are free to wander the ship while I speak with Captain Kells, Ingram and Proctor Teagan. Now leave." Clank did not argue he left for the closest bar on the ship. No one seemed to care, they were all busy with their usual work, so when he reached the bar he order himself a shot of whisky. He sat quietly and breathed slowly, he showed no fear or sense of nervousness but truthfully, everything was riding on this. They atleast need sponsor and apart of him feared that Malice, Sven and himself failed. He downed his shot of whisky in a single gulp and ordered another.

"Well I'll be." Clank turned around and saw the BoS soldier he met back in Diamond city, Vark was his name. He wasn't in his armor or uniform but civilian clothes. He seemed surprised at the presence of Clank. He went up to him and sat down next to Clank. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I have business with your leaders I wished to discuss."

"Wait that was you?"

"Huh?"

"Some guy over the radio mentioned a waster coming up in a buggy wishing to discuss business, asking for the Brotherhood to finance an expedition to the old world."

"Word travels fast."

"Of course, not much to do here while Maxson talks with the Minutemen. Most action we get is repelling a raider horde down by the border every month. The only downside to a more stable Commonwealth, less action to see. Then again some of the more, experienced vets don't mind it."

"Well that's good."

"Eh the younger kids don't like it." He shook his and ordered a drink. "So shouldn't you be talking with Maxson?"

"I just did."

"And."

"I'm waiting for their response."

"That could take awhile, each one of the higher ups will give their opinion but ultimately its Maxson's call."

"Got to ask, does he have full control. You know what I mean right?"

"If you mean that he's a dictator, then no. He holds great sway, true but theoretical he can be denied. But still, its really only him you have to please. Tell you what though it does sound interesting, I won't lie. I'd sign up for it."

"Thank you."

"So where's your girlfriend?"

"Malice is speaking with General Davison."

"Really?" Vark raised an eyebrow.

"To be fair I'd doubt she'd like it here."

"Dislikes the Brotherhood?"

"You could say that." Clank saw Vark smirk and shake his head.

"If that's the case then I won't blame her. Not everyone likes us, just glad she's not a raider shooting. I'll take insults a hundred percent of the time." The two then drank and spoke to one another, Vark was pleasant company but that soon ended. A couple of recruits pasted by and spoke of how they just saw General Davison coming aboard the ship followed by Preston Garvey and some woman. A woman who matched Malice's appearance. Clank jumped up from his seat, and ran out of the bar. Trying to make his way towards the catwalk, so he'd be able to meet up with Malice. As we ran down the halls of the ship he passed the observation room, in it Maxson and his people were standing, speaking to someone. General Davison.

"Good to see you Maxson."

"And you too. I see you brought a guest."

"Yeah, he had just spoke earlier, a business proposition. I have a feeling you know what it's about."

"Yes, I had just spoke with a man name Clank, guess I should-"

"I'm here." Clank walked into the room. He breathed slowly as walked in, his arms were behind his back, and he stood up straight.

"Good." Maxson said. "After a quick discussion we've decided to help fund your expedition. Most of my advisors agree it is something to look into."

"And I having spoken with your friend agree. The Minutemen will help fund this trip as well." Clank could only smile, Malice walked up to him and high fived him.

"You seemed to have a silver tongue." she said.

"So do you."

"Either way, we'll enter a new talks. Of what we want, and of what you'll need."

"I'm sure you won't need any over site." The General said. "But I will, I'm sure we'll be keeping an eye over your shoulders making sure you're not spending too much money on what we don't need."

"We won't spend a single cap on something we don't need." Clank promised.

"Really other than what discussed we just need a crew, mercs, scientists, meds, vets, trackers, hunters and engineers. But me and Clank can do that on our own. We can set up a recruitment station and get the word out."

"Well that goods." General said.

"Yes, and since I guess we're all here let's start talking." Clank let a grin, as he and Malice sat down with everyone else. He was sure the new talks were going to last a while, from everything from budget, to the supplies and who giving who and what. This was only the first step on a long road. Hammering out deals was not what he wanted to do but to reach one dream, one must travel a road of hazards and pitfalls.

 **A/N Sorry if this chapter is a bit rushed sounding and stuff but now is the official start of the SYOC, I should be summiting the SYOC form by now. So as I said, I'll be taking a break of sorts so I can write a few chapters. As I write this I got 4 main, and a side. I need 6 more, what I would like is a female ex raider, and a super mutant chef. If I don't get them then no biggie. Anyways peace.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Fallout OC template**

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Species and Race(If ghoul put down what race they were before going ghoul, and in the case of super mutants race means where they're from, IE D.C, Boston, West coast):

Sexuallity:

Type of person they're into(optional but would enjoy if you gave a short explanation):

Looks:

Scars/Tattoos:

Personality:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Fears:

Reason for joining the crew:

Weapons:

Outfits(What they generally wear, bonus points if you include what they wear for certain occasions or situations such as sleep or parties *note I think for the average wastelander they don't got a lot clothes so they might sleep in their armor most of the time):

Karma:

Factions/Former factions(Can be made up but you'll have to give me a history of the faction, might be subject to change if the faction is really badly done):

Skills(What are they good at, you can have a couple dozen if you want but don't go on forever):

Weaknesses/disadvantages(What are they bad at, are they physically or mentally unfit for certain things, same as before don't go on forever):

S.P.E.C.I.A.L(Note I have three outlines for Supers, Humans, and Ghouls, you have 5 points to put in for but, you can have more if you can justify why, with a history lesson of you're character)

Human

Strength: 5

Perception: 5

Endurance: 5

Chrisma: 5

Intelligence: 5

Agility 5

Luck: 5

Ghoul

Strength:4

Perception:6

Endurance:6

Charisma:4

Intelligence:5

Agility:5

Luck:6

Super mutant

Strength:8

Perception:4

Endurance:7

Chrisma:2

Intelligence:2

Agility:3

Luck:5

History:

 **Other notes can include if they posses any pets, or vehicles, friends, family or just their general thoughts on life or certain topics.(With the vehicles I'll only except one or two characters with cars so don't crazy, as well if I like your character but want to change something I'll talk to you first. Last notes is bonus points if you can give me a drawing of you're character, they'll be more likely to be considered for the story but no promises so if you do draw them just do a rough sketch. As well I will include really bad Oc's as joke, so I won't be mean about it but I might add em in when they do the interviews.**


	13. Chapter 13

So I'll keep this short, I've gotten a lot of good oc's but its not going as fast as I like, so I'm allowing a double submission. If you already made one and would like to submit a second feel free, and if you submitted two already, just hold off till the 20th, if everything goes right I should have a chapter out by Feb 1st

A/N sorry, I double checked my submissions, I've just been busy for a little bit so they slipped my mind. Lucky there's only one spot left. Though it still stands that if you only submitted one oc you can submit another. Sorry for the inconvenience.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Eleven**

The light from from the sun rose, and woman tossed in turned in her bed tired from the long days pulled over the covers to escape to only discover something her her bedframe shaking her awake. "Nicole Sherman get up." The girl jumped out of bed and stood at attention to a young knight. He crossed his arms at the girl and shook his head. And while he shook his head disappointedly as if he was her father, funny thing since he was only three years older than her at the age of twenty two. "Scribe Sherman do you know why I kicked your bed?"

"Because I was sleeping in?"

"Bingo." He said with a sly smug. "You were sleeping in when your shift is about to start in twenty minutes. You would have missed breakfast and would be working a ten hour shift on a empty stomach, minus lunch but that's six hours away at one."

"It won't happen again sir."

"Make sure it doesn't scribe not get a move on. Filthy ghouls should be done with the mess." Nicole grabbed her gear, got into uniform and ran out of the tent. And as she did the world came alive. Not even ten minutes after sun up and yet dozens of people all varying in size, race and species wander about the area doing different things all while a huge ship laid in the foreground. It was almost like a town of sorts. Which in away it was. Tents, were sprung up around the place, each holding people inside sleeping, eating, sometimes fucking. There were even campfires as man, mutant and ghoul sat around drinking and laughing. Kind of made her sick.

"You human funny, me glad took gig."

"Yeah you ain't so bad yourself big guy. Hey once this is done we could take up another gig as hired guns."

"Yeah sounds good." Nicole only shook her head at the traitor and drew her attention to a more positive note. The Northern Star. Over a month ago some scaver talked to a couple of the most powerful factions in all of the commonwealth. The merchants, the Minutemen and Brotherhood and asked them to fund his little expedition to the old world. As if he had a tongue cast of silver itself he convinced each one to help fund it and it worked. Everyone put in a little something. Merchant gave mostly caps and junk, some weapons, food, medicine and litteral junk for spare parts. Minutemen were more elegant in what they gave, they gave them soldier to protect the ship from greedy raiders and gunners, plus caps and then there was the Brotherhood. They gave them men as well but they mostly focused on building the ship as opposed to guarding it. Best they did was three squads worth of troops and only two power armor units. When asked for tech however they were pissed off quiet quickly. Saying that they didn't deserve the tech that much and how they should grateful they were even helping in the first place. And that sort of annoyed Nicole. They actually asked for possible advance electronics and engine part so that they could make the ship more fuel efficient and yet still the Brotherhood, in all of its zeal refused.

She looked to the ship and saw the outer hull covered in scaffolding, as men and women. Some brotherhood, some independent contractors did the final repairs and patching up the hull and all of its hulls. She could even see as others had shovels and were trying to dig the ship out of the sand. Getting prepared when they'll finally be able to pull her out to see and go on their journey. Nicole kept walking until she reached the right side of the ship. The ships side door was wide open the ramp allowing people to enter with ease and that's what she did. She went up to the ramp, walked in and started to the engine room towards the back. The cargo hold was barebones now save for a few dozen crates, a refurbished bus and a buggy. The shipping containers were the first things to be removed as they were used to repair just about everything that just need some extra metal. Nicole looked over shoulder to make sure no one was around and headed towards a few crates. They were locked, so taking a key she opened it and smiled at what she found inside. A incomplete robot, it was prototype mean to fight mutants but when she heard that the Brotherhood were going to use it on 'others' she thought it better to hide it away. She quickly closed it up and headed back out going to get something to eat and start her shift.

The sun did not bother Edward even though it shown into his eyes, his Jackie his dog loved it. He let rocking of the wagon keep her asleep, better than her barking at a squirrel. He rather read his copy of War and Peace and listen to the radio the caravanner brought. "Tell me ain't that a kick in the head?"

"And that was 'Ain't that a kick in the head' by Dean Martin. I want to thank the merchants who brought that back from New Vegas. So I want to talk about this I heard, so about a month this Scrapper by the name of Clank actually went to the Brotherhood of Steel, while another one of his friends went to the Minutemen and a ghoul who spoke something called Norwegian spoke to the merchants of Bunker and asked them to help fund a expedition to the, get this the old world. As in Europe. I thought it was a scam at first. Sorry sorry but it's actually happening and for the past while they've been making good progress from what I've heard. Now they are also hiring mercenaries, engineers. Now that's the temperty gig, what's got me interested is the permeient gig or by that I mean, going across the sea and exploring an unknown place for possibly years. And from what I hear a lot of people are taking the job. Can't say I blame, I'd be a little hesitant but still curious how it would. So I should also note that almost every large settlement from here to far harbor has a recruitment desk. And I'm serious there's one here. I mean there's one here at diamond city. So if you're interested come by and sign up. Now here's I don't want to start the world on fire."

"Hmm actually that sounds interesting." Edward said. He put down his book and turned to the the merchant. "Hey how much further until we reach Diamond City?"

"What you actually interested in signing up?"

"Why not, it will make some interesting poems. And who doesn't want to explore something lost. That and, there's not much happy memories here."

"Ahh guess that makes sense. We should be arriving inside Boston in an hour." Edward nodded his head and pet Jackie's. He resumed his book, not bothering to look up even as they made their way into the city. It was only when stopped he actually noticed. He got up from the wagon, grabbed his things.

"Thanks for the ride." He reached into his pocket and handed him a few caps.

"No problem. It was nice to have an extra gun. Essically when they pay you."

"Hey Jackie. Wake up boy." Edward yelled to the albino mongrel.

"Grrr." The creature growled then yawned. He stretched his leg then jumped down. He ran up to his master and the walked into Diamond City.

"Hey Stranger. Make sure you stay out of trouble, and your dog doesn't bite anyone." A radom guard told him.

"Sure thing, hey by the way where's the-"

"Dugout inn. Christ, you're the fifth in the last hour."

"Thanks?"

"Well good to yeah, you'll need it." The guard then wander off, Edward couldn't help but look at Jackie and shrug his shoulder. The then just head towards the Dugout in and just he promised the recruitment people were there. There weren't any signs to point it out specifically but Edward could by the line however. Edward then just walked up and stood their, lucky it went by pretty quick. All they were asking was name, equipment, skills and reason for joining. Most had sub standard gear and were only fit for a merc job. From the sounds of the people behind the booth they weren't impressed.

"Next."

"Oi, Name Vulgar I'm wantin to join your crew."

"Is that so."

"Yeah, I'm wanting to join cause I got debt and yea, I got a shotgun that I modded, fires gerades, most of the time and uh yea think qualify."

"Yeah sure. Next."

"Cool cool so where-"

"Next." The man named Vulgar swore and left, it his turn now. Edward walked up and presented himself.

"Hello."

"Hello, Name?"

"Edward Walker."

"Ahh a real name, what kind of gear you got, and skills. Note that drug making, love making and psychicness do not count."

"Hmm, I got my M2045 Magnum Revolver Rifle, can switch it to a regular revolver, rifle and sniper rifle, all in field if need be but takes longers then at a bench. My Silenced 10 mil and a machete that can catch fire."

"Impressive gear." The man looked up and down Edward. "Take it that's your armor?"

"Yeah, impressive huh, actually used some power armor pieces and welded onto the cage armor."

"Please tell you're not just a welder though. We got enough already."

"Actually no, I'm more of a scribe. I can read and write very, I have extensive knowledge of books, pre and post war, and I have copied down several. I had a job a proof reader and even operated a printing press."

"Hmm those actually seem like useful skills in the expedition. So why do you want to join?"

"I want to be inspired, as I write my poems and ballets, plus I'm curious what's over there." The man smiled and wrote down what he said.

"Not the worst reason I've heard, alright anything else you'd like to add."

"Well I'd be bring my dog Jackie, she an albino mongrel."

"As long as she doesn't kill anyone she's welcomed aboard." The man ripped something off and handed it to Edward. "Show this to someone incharge and you'll be allowed on the ship, I'll just need to jot this down on my computer and email it to the ship. Welcome to the crew. A merchant caravan are leaving in an hour. If you get there soon enough you might be able to find a seat and not have to walk. Good luck to you, you'll need it."

Two ferals eating some poor smuch, by the looks it was a highwaymen that he was task to bring in for four hundred caps, now the bounty was worthless cause a reaver was eating his face. "Well fuck fuck." Using his hunting rifle he looked at the area for anything of value. He saw a radio, a few guns lying about, some jet and a missile launcher. Not a bad weapon to pawn off, get some caps. There was a lit lantern plus a flamer next to the ghouls. Smirking Jack fired his rifle puncturing the flamer tank, letting oil and gas spill out. The ghouls jumped up but before they could do anything he fired the lantern knocking it into the puddle, litting it up. In essence killing both of the ghouls. They screamed and wailed in pain. After a moment they fell down dead. He waited a few seconds, when nothing happened he shot two more bullets, each head shots. Both heads exploded. He smiled at his work. Jack got up from his nest and went to the dead raiders camp, he gathered up everything that looked valuable and as he did he turned on the radio to listen to some music but what he heard next surprised him.

"Hey names Clank and I have a message for you, have you ever wondered what's it's like to see the old world. Have you ever wanted to go exploring, have you ever wanted to make history then what I'm offering is for you. I'm fixing up a ship, an old cargo ship and it's almost done, all I need is a crew to travel with me and rediscover the old world. Come to the ship itself or one of the many recruitment centers today." Jack thought for a moment, he heard rumors met one or two people who said they just joined up but he thought it all bullshit, but it did sound interesting. And what the hell, not many go across the ocean and live plus he's already seen everything to see. So with a smirk Jack gathered what he could carry to headed towards a local town in hopes to join this merry crew.

 **An: Thanks for reading, there's going to be two more chapters introducing the other seven ocs. I didn't want to introduce everyone at once, cause it would have taken too long to write and I doubt you guys want to wait another week and have no chapters.** **So sorry if it seems a bit rushed but next one will be a bit better.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Twelve**

Beer, most people said it tasted like like pissed but to Walker it didn't taste like anything, more the likely because his taste buds were malfunctioned but that's what he gets for not seeking to be repaired by the Railroad, guaranteed they would learn he was a courser. Ex courser. He may of left the Institute when he was broken but even now people are wary of synths even though the threat of being replaced was gone, trust wasn't something that came immediately. Even in the company he held, a group of travelers he saved from a radscorp attack he was weary to reveal his damaged body, even going as far as far to keep his goggles on and face scarf covered.

"I want to thank yeah for helping us traveler." An older man said, obviously the leader of the group.

"You're welcome." walker said still sipping his beer.

"You sure you don't want to take off your armor anything. We're safe now." It was a woman this time, she holding radscorp meat over the fire.

"Nah, safer like this all honesty. Can never be too careful."

"Are you sure?"

"Ah let the man be."

"So what bring you guys down here? Not many people come south of the Castle any more, not since the Gunner been making troop placements on the border."

"Well we're going to try to get on the crew of the Northern Star."

"Huh? What's that?"

"You haven't heard?"

"I've been on my own for a few weeks, no real news that doesn't involve over hearing Gunner conversations as I 'avoid' them."

"Well this guy by the name of Clank got all the major factions funding a project to get a ship rebuilt so he can cross the ocean. And go to the old world. Me and everyone else wanted to see if we can sign up." Walker scoffed at the old man's words.

"How do you know it's not a lie?"

"Well it's not like we have anything to lose by checking it out. Worst case its just a rumor that got out of hand, best. Hehe, I've lived here all my life, there isn't much out here and I ain't well enough to trip across the continent to see the NCR. Maybe, just maybe there's something more out there. Maybe we find a settlement, help em and I settle down in a nice city, old man can dream."

"Touche." the way he put it did make Walker gain some interest, it'd be nice to go somewhere where people aren't super afraid of yeah. "Alright tell you what, I'll join your band of wannabe sailers, and see it for myself. And if it isn't an ambush to steal our shit I might join. Helping people is my thing."

"Well we always could use another gun. Should only be a day's walk. Alright people let's go to bed, we long day of walking. You too Stranger."

"I'm more than happy to stay up and keep watch."

"You're choice." with a sly smirk the android began to ponder what might lie for him in the future.

Jack 'Aisen' Yuki lay almost naked in bed with the most beautiful girl in the world. The light began to shine in their apartment bedroom. It bothered him for a second but he found a clever solution. He covered his face by burying it in the neck of his girlfriend. The sudden surprise jolted her awake, the shock turned to an annoyed smile. "Jack you horny bastard, what did I tell you about about first thing in the morning?"

"Hey in my defense I was using you as a shield against the light the light not to sle-never mind that sounded dumb out loud."

"Hmph." Helena crossed her arms and smiled. She leaned in and gave her boyfriend a peck on the cheek. "Since you're a good boy I'll give you that, and maybe some more tonight. I have to ask though, after a night are you still sure you want to do this, you want me and you to go on the ship, join the crew."

"Yeah, I know you're a little hesitant but I think it's still a good idea, Boston is a lot safer than it used to be but its no vault, or control vault. You have a large group of raiders just south of us that totals in the thousands, and the Brotherhood and Railroad peace isn't going to last forever, when something happens it's going to affect us all. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I want to raise our family in the safest place possible and if that means traveling across the sea to do it I will, now unless we can come back and decide to go again I won't go and I'll stay here." Jack gentle took Helena hands and looked her in the eye. "Don't worry Helen, everything's going to be ok, I'll talk to the recruiter later and figure everything out."

"Well don't you know you're way to my heart."

"If I didn't I wouldn't be sleeping with the most beautiful girl in the world." Jack said smiling, causing Helena to blush a bright rose red. She hugged her boyfriend and got out of bed, putting on her bra and close.

"I'm going to get something to eat and start my shift."

"Ok. I hate to see you go but I love to see you leave." Helena flipped Jack off and rolled her eyes but as she left she shook her head and smiled. Jack went and got ready himself. He put on his long red sleeved shirt, hoodie blue trouser pants and black boots and headed out the door. He found himself in the kitchen, a girl much younger then Jack and man, who looked almost similar waited for him. The girl was cooking on the stove, the man reading the newspaper. "Hey Anya, sleep well."

"I'd say so, bit cold last night and was woken up by construction."

"Sorry to hear, gave me an excuse to cook."

"Hey what about you Al?" The man put down the newspaper and yawned.

"Eh fine, heard you talking with Helena. I won't try to stop you but you sure its wise to leave me with Anya, I mean-"

"Hey I can take care of myself bro."

"To be fair we'd be all dead from starvation and crushed under the mess of Jackie if it wasn't for his girlfriend."

"Look, I'm just checking. Its crazy like five years we won't go but if its only a year or couple of months no harm in seeing if we can start fresh. Just think about it, place, new things to see."

"Alright, just becareful if you go."

"I will. I promise. So Anya what did you make?"

"Eggs and toast."

"Ahh my favorite." Jack took a seat at the table, Anya brought him his food and he dug in. The were delious, Toast a bit burnt but nothing butter couldn't solve. After he finished he left the apartment. As he left he saw other like him go down the halls and to the lobby. There Minutemen stood around drinking some bitter bean coffee.

"Hey Aisen." Said one of the guards.

"Hey guys."

"Hows your injury?"

"Its healed."

"Well you're lucky, how can a scrap crew get in so much trouble."

"Eh it follows me. Hey you that recruiter still here."

"Man you going to leave us?"

"Hey just want to check it out."

"Man we're short on scrapper you know, the city needs to cleaned and rebuilt but no wants the job. You want to know how hard it is to clear and sort rubble, or taking apart a falling skyscraper piece by piece."

"I can, that's my job and it ain't dangerous its boring."

"Hehe fair enough. He's in the old laundry mat."

"Thanks." Aisen quickly ran to the stairs and went to the basement. It was cold and it gave him the shivers but he didn't care. True to the guards words the recruiter stood at a picnic table eating his breakfast with the other construction crew members who didn't live in the refurbished apartments. Aisen walked up and sat down across from him. "Good morning."

"Moring, so what do you want to know?"

"To the point."

"Eh you have to be sometimes."

"I don't I just want to see how long the trip going to be, I have a brother and a sister and I don't want to leave behind forever, will we even be in contact?"

"Fair concerns, and you're not the first. It's unknown how long we'll be surveying the old world. If things get too dangerous or the old world is just as barren I doubt we'd be staying for too long, as for contact that will be a negative for a while. Plan is to set up a continental relay if we can find a home base, main plan is to set in a safe zone, possibly safe harbor in a settlement or stretch of land that is uninhabited, the relay tower will be used to contact the US but as well as teams who venture into the old world on their own. How long that will take will depend on how safe the mercs can assure an area will be. Personally I see it happening in a week. Long enough to clear an area of monsters, raider and abominations." Jack nodded his head.

"Thanks."

"I know it's a big decision, not something to be taken lightly but if you got the skills the ship could use someone like you. Besides you can even bring your family if you like, you won't be the first."

"No as much as I hate it I'd rather them stay here."

"Well it's your choice, so do you think you will come however?"

"Honestly yeah. I just have to tell my girlfriend."

"Well then, welcome aboard." The recruiter stuck out his hand and the men shook.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Thirteen**

Cynthia hummed a song as she tended her garden, the day wa coming to an end and the chill of the night would soon come. She wished to finish up her chores before she went off to eat. Her section of the greenhouse of Greentop was in neat lines and highly efficient. She was making sure that the corn grew strong so that the peas could cling onto something. Which luckily they were. She ended up picking servel corn cobs and peas for dinner. She gently placed them in a basket and headed out. There she found her father, Kaito, tending to a small alcove of medical plants while her mother, Asuka, chopped firewood for the stove. "Cynthia!" Her mother called. "How are your plants doing?"

"They're doing fine mother, the fertilizers you got this year are working splendid." She smiled.

"Well that's good."

"Quiet, I think we might be able to even have a surplus, enough to feed the other farms if their crops grow weak from the frost."

"Excellent. Kaito come on in. Dinners going to be ready."

"Coming." The old japanese man slowly got up from his herbs and met his wife and daughter at their home. Cynthia's mother Asuka made a fine brahmin broth, coupled with her corn and peas made it even better. They talked about their progress of the day and as they finished up dinner there was a loud knock at the door. Asuka got up and grabbed her sawed off shotgun.

"Mother I wish you'd stop doing that. There hasn't been a raider attack in these parts in years."

"You can never be too careful." Cynthia watched her mother open the door, true to her what she thought it was weary traveler. He carried no weapons, not even had anything on him save for the clothes on his back. With a sly smirk she looked at her mother.

"Greeting I want to ask if I can spend the night in your home."

"Hmmm." Cynthia's mother eyed the man but nodded her head. "You can come in but you'll have to disarm."

"Fine with me ma'am it's your home." He pulled out a small switchblade and handed it Asuka. He then stepped in and took off his coat and folded it.

"Well come on tralver we'd be piss poor hosts if we didn't offer you food, we enough to spare."

"Thank you." The man followed them back to the kitchen and Cynthia's father made him a bowl.

"So what brings you out in these parts? You don't look much like a settler or merchant. More like you should be in Diamond City or a bigger settlement."

"Well true." The man said. "I'm actually a recruiter."

"Brotherhood? Minutemen?" Kaito asked.

"Both in a way. I've been working with a independent project funded by both groups. A guy by the name of Clank been fixing up this ship, he wants to take it to the old world, Europe and explore, a few of us her hired to go around and recruit crew members.I was just on my way back to the ship to drop off some reports. They're almost ready to leave but they're also still looking for people to hire however, if any of you folks are interested you could come with me to check it out."

"No no it's alright, me and my wife aren't interested in adventures anymore."

"Well actually." Cynthia spoke up, curious she wanted to know more. "What kind of people are your employers looking for."

"Well everyone to be fair, we're good on mercs. No like engineers, farmers, doctors, computer experts. List goes on, now if you seem competent, not crazy then you'll probably be hired either way. We're not in any position to turn people down."

"Cynthia, you can't be serious."

"Mom please I'm just asking."

"No you're not. I'm your mother and I know the look in your eye. The look of wanderlust and adventure."

"Mother-"

"I'm sorry if I caused anything." The recruiter said.

"No no its ok. But your mother is right Cynthia, I do see that look as well." Kaito said. Saddened Cynthia got up from the table, and put her dishes in the sink to be washed later.

"May I be excused." she asked, in a saddened but timid manner.

"Yes, you may." she nodded her head and left for her room.

"Again I'm-" The recruiter spoke again.

"There's nothing to apologise for." Katio said once more.

"Cynthia wishes to explore but he have to keep her here."

"Is she unwell?"

"No. She pure." Asuka said.

"Huh."

"She a pacifist, she hates violence and wishes to talk things through but that's not how the world works unfortunately. We fear that one day she will meet someone who can't be talked down."

"You know the trip is safe."

"Is it?"

"How do you know. For all you know a pirate fleet is in the middle of the ocean attacking ships and rapping the woman to be breeding sows."

"And maybe there's nothing there. Maybe there's a utopia, a place to settle. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you there's no risk but nothing ventured nothing gained. How old is your daughter?"

"Nineteen."

"I say she's old enough to make her own decisions. I understand your concern I really do but it seems like your daughter wants to atleast hear about it. I say let her and if she decides to come with, then let her." A small smirk came onto her face and what she heard her father say next surprised her.

"Alright. I suppose you're right." Cynthia smiled and jumped up and down for a second excited. She stopped, took a breath and waited for her parents to call her.

"Cynthia can you come out?"

"Yes?"

"Oh don't play coy." Her mother said, "I know you were listening in."

"Fair enough. So I do have some question I want to ask, how long will it take, what is expected of me."

"The trip will take how long it takes, we're unsure. But what's expected of you is depending on your job. Mercenaries will be expected to help protect the ship and make sure the exploratory teams come back safe, medics will be expected to heal anyone and everyone who's injured. Engineers will be expected to repair the ship, so on and so forth."

"And you said they leave soon?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm just going to drop off the recruit listing, just need to get to Country Crossing and maybe convince one of the drivers to drop me off. Honestly I don't want to walk too much."

"If I went with you could you assure me I would be apart of the crew?"

"No. But tell me about your skills."

"I know a bit about medicine, I'm a herbalist. Apothecary." The recruiter smiled and nodded.

"That alone is enough to get you considered."

"That's all the questions I have." As soon as Cynthia finished the man nodded his head, and she turned to her parents.

"Alright you're rebuttal."

"We don't have one." Asuka said.

"The man is right, you're more than old enough to decide for yourself. And while me and your mother don't want you to go, as we said I could see it in your eyes. There is a condition though. If you go you have to carry a weapon."

"Mom, dad I'll-"

"Listen to your father." Asuka eye went to fire and it caused the 19 year old Cynthia to cower and listen.

"We already have a few right now, all we ask is you to carry them, me and your mother already taught you how to use them." Cynthia watched as Asuka opened up a locker, in it she pulled out a 1o millimeter pistol, a baseball bat, a .44 and, Cynthia went cold and she shuttered at the site, a combat knife. Asuka handed her each weapon and Cynthia took it, with some protest.

"Is there anything else."

"Just be safe." Her mother said.

Therion drank in his home with the company of a man named Dirk, the old raider was a good five years senior, at the ripe old age of 35. He remember finding him crying at three graves of his old partners. Therion convinced him of a better way and he took it and while Therion hated raiders he felt pity for the man. They became fast friends helping the Commonwealth for almost four years. And now he was leaving and the two friends wanted one more night before he left.

"Shit remember that deathclaw." Dirk said. "Slashed that super mutant behemoth then started to chase after us. We must have ran for a mile."

"Oh yeah I remember. We ended up running into a battle between the Minutemen and raider gangs. Almost got my head blown off."

"Yeah luckily it attacked the raiders and when it was done all it took a simple punch to take it down."

"We ate well that night." Dirk laughed as he sipped his beer. "Well I wish you luck on your trip man, an expedition to the old world. You can't make stuff like that up."

"Yeah, hey Dirk there's something I want to give you before I go." Therion pulled out a brass key.

"Huh?"

"I want to give you my home. I won't be needing it for now."

"Ther. I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. It's the least I can do. I know Narrow Park isn't anywhere interesting but it's a good outpost and I think you'll like it here." Without saying a work Dirk took the key.

"Thank you."

Eleonore was an oddity among ghouls, when their skin peeled off they were left with a fleshy peach color of their muscles, but for the natural born Austrian her skin, if you could call it that was pale white. As of now she was in her lab, hidden in the rubble of an old missle silo. She could hear gun fire but she did not worry because that was not for her. Two large raider gangs were fighting over the control of a port. Fighting like that was common and she loved it. She could steal away a few raider and run experiments on them and no one would be the wiser. Right now she was seeing what happens if you transfused blood from a feral ghoul into a perpetual healthy human. The results were disappointing to say the least however. Part of her hoped for a cure for ghouls, but truth be told she didn't actually care. Most who accepted the transfusion either died or went semi ghoul. It was a rare site, Semi ghoul was a rare place to achieve. You had the human look plus the healing factor of ghouls. Bad part they went crazy so there was that. Elenore was growing ever bored with this, she once heard a rumor from a raider of a ship. A ship trying to cross the ocean to her homeland of Europe. A foolish attempt. Winter was almost here and the storms would tear apart any ship that would foolishly attempt to cross but a long sense of hope overcame her. To be honest she was curious if they would make it, if any of her family, her house was still there. She pulled out a syringe and euthanize any raider and dumped their bodies in the incinerator and decided. Fuck it.

 **Hey I'm sorry Its been a while, I just got a job and I work 2-11, four days a week, meaning that there's a lot of other stuff I want to do and write about. Not just this, so I'm going to try for still Fridays but every 2-3 weeks so I can still game, write and do this in my free time. Stuff should be a bit shorter though so there's that.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter fourteen**

Clank was awoken by the sounds of his alarm clock going off, he shot up and rubbed his eyes. He now slept in the captain quarters. Not long after the deal with the factions Sven gave up his position of Captain and gave the reins over to Clank. Not that Sven minded, as he claimed his ghoul skin prefered rougher and heavier sheets of the crew blankets. Clank got out of bed and looked at Malice, she was clothed as to be expect, not like they were consisted lovers anything, the way they figured since they shared a bed before no reason not to share one now. He was silent as he climbed out, with himself already dressed he headed towards the commons kitchen walking past the showers and med bay. Clank looked inside the med bay and saw the first of the doctors preparing for their long day of work and helping previous patients. One doctor stuck out and that was the ghoul, her story of being from Europe and all that was too good to pass up but there was an aura about her that made Clank shiver.

"Meats ready." A deep voice called out and it didn't take long for Clank to see it was a super mutant saying it. Most who heard those words would assume they were the meat. Luckily it was brahmin and, unluckily mirelurk that Bruz was serving. "Eh boss, got your razor bagel and coffee ready." The brute said.

"Thanks Bruz." Clank said as he grabbed the plate from his hands and coffee sitting on the counter top.

"No problem." He called out. Clank kept walking and passed the crew quarters this time. The small rooms had people in them and he could see some were getting up and dressed, others slept and some enjoyed their little free time. Nobody paid any mind to him and soon Clank found himself on the top deck. It was bustling with activity like an ant colony. Things were getting lowered and pulled up, people weiled and repaired things, sparks were flying and more then once did a fire start to only be put out. Clank moved to the bridge. As he opened the door to the control room he found a man and woman standing over a table, a map sprawled across it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes the vertibirds don't lie, something happening along the border."

"What's going on?" Clank asked, unsure what to make of the half of the conversation he just heard. Captain Margaret of the Minutemen, while young had a sorrowful look that should only be on the faces of the old. Her scars and burns on her face made it hard to know that she was frowning but Clank knew when someone was about to give bad news, he didn't even need to see their face to know.

"Scribe Marlo was just tell me that we have to pull out most of our men."

"Huh." Marlo the oldest in the room who's white hair went no higher than half a inch stepped up and lit a cigarette.

"Look son, a large congregation of Gunner just got into Quincy, if that wasn't bad enough a fly by showed they got a tank and some hummers with .50 cal machine guns mounted on em."

"What's the problem they do stuff like this all the time."

"They don't bring tanks out often, and only when they're about to do something real time. They're not something to show off anymore."

"He's not wrong, everyone from the lowest captain to Davison think they might attack. He wants every able body Minuteman to either help reinforces towns, strategic locations and even the border incase something happens."

"We'll leave you some men but past that."

"You guys can't leave, the Minutemen and Brotherhood make up a majority of the work force and security. We just need to dig and pull her out."

"That's another thing, ships are slowing down, Minutemen are paying every single ship master and crew to help shuttle everyone, unless it's important Davison asked the ships to avoid passing through our waters. For their own safety." A sudden rush hit Clank they were so close, the engine and propeller were almost done and already they started to dig the Northern star out.

"There has to be something. Hell we just need a day or two and a tow."

"Neither of which are going to happen anytime soon. I'm sure if you wait-"

"I can't wait." Clank gave out a sigh. "Let me talk to Malice and figure things out."

"Alright." Marlo said. Clank ran out and rushed towards the crew deck, Malice should have already eaten and started taking inventory, starting with yesterday's reports then going to each department and place to see where they were at. Starting with the med bay. Clank ran faster and almost busted through the wall if it hadn't been for a guy opening the door. As soon as Clank was in he stuck his hand out and grabbed the door frame slowing him down and swinging him in. Everyone started at him for a minute before returning to their work. Clank saw Malice off in the corner speaking with a young doctor.

"So miss Helena hows the supplies looking." Malice said.

"Work related injuries-"

"Malice can we talk." Clank said interrupting.

"Clank can this wait?"

"Afraid not." He gave her a look, letting her know that it was very important. She saw in his eyes and she humored him. She let out a sigh and ushered them to a empty cot. She closest the curtain behind them and turned to face Clank.

"What is it this time." With a hushed tone, Clank looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listen and then he spoke.

"Minutemen and BoS are pulling out. Gunners are about to attack or so they think. And by the sounds of it I think they are." Malice didn't let the news faze as she knew that if she freaked out it would cause panic across the ship. Unfortunately most of the doctors and nurse gossiped and news spread fast.

"Your thinking we might get attacked."

"Actually yeah, we'd be a big sitting duck, plus the gunners don't have much in a navy so a big military transport would be tempting to take."

"And the BoS being the Bo-shits might just blow us up to prevent us from being acquired by the Gunners."

"True and its just that we're so fuckin close, all we really need is a tow, but no ship is going to come anywhere near Boston for a while. We might have to evacuate if things don't calm down." The thought frighten Clank so much, just to almost finish his dream project to only have to leave and run the risk of it getting stole, or blown up.

"Excuse me." A voice said from behind the curtain. It was raspy though not as bad some, yet it was also femmine and who ever spoke carried a cold tone as well. "But I heard you speak and I may have a solution."

"Fuck." Clank mouthed as he pulled back the curtains to reveal the ghoul. Clank eyed for a second, she was pale and had white hair, rare for ghouls, what stuck out was the cybernetics. Such tech was rare before the war and those who possessed now were rarer.

"Eleonore Von Habsburg- Lorraine at your service." She said with a vile, somewhat evil smile. "I know of a way to have our little ship towed out before a war can break out."

"And how is that?"

"Simple. We steal one."

 **Hey I wanted to say I'm back, now here's the part where I say I'm sorry for being late and all that. But writing's going good and I actually traveled to england and france in my time off so I guess I'm an expert. I'm still going to do the once a month or so update so I can write acouple other things as well as do my job anyways thanks for reading and see you in a month or two.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Fifthteen**

"Wait what?" Clank asked.

"Steal it? From who? The Brotherhood." Malice asked.

"Heavens no, as you see those bigoted asshole don't possess any ships anyways. Too low tech for their blood, unless it was a submarine I think they'd like something like that."

"Then from who, no one else really has a ship. Now even any of the local traders and merchants." Malice added.

"Luckily we won't be stealing it from them, when I lived in the bandit lands I would sometimes stop and gather supplies at a local trade port by the river. The mayor, king, emperor of the town has over five ships from when he was a pirate, raiding and pillaging the coast."

"So what are we looking at, then?"

"Of the five only we need two, a tugboat called Dead man's toe and his capital ship a small passenger barge. He calls Daisy. Taking them will be tricky as he has them docked and he lives on Daisy. But if we take them and get to the Northern star was can use them to tow us out to freedom of the open ocean." Clank looked at Malice, then back to Elenore.

"It's not a bad plan, definitely could work." Malice said.

"Thank you." She said.

"Planen kan fungere, men det er veldig risikabelt."

"He agrees with yeah, but personally I say take the loss, no reason to send some meat bags in raider territory and get killed." Conrad said.

"Excluding the dickhead robot it seems like everyone ones in agreement." Malice said.

"Now we have tell the crew." The mere though weighed heavy on Clank. There was a risk that even telling everyone of the possible dangers could spread panic and cause a lot of people to leave. With a deep breath he stood up and went to the intercom in his room. "All none vital personal I want to meet me in the cargo hold in five minutes, I have important news to discuss." He took his hand off the button and left for the cargo hold.

Edward slept in the bus that lied in the middle of the cargo hold, Jackie on his lap. He was awoken by the ship's intercom. He wasn't startled by it but didn't appreciate it either, with a yawn both from him and his dog he stretched his arms and exited the bus. Heading towards a little make shift meeting area. Where a whiteboard and soap box stood. He was in front of the group though tempted to move when a BoS girl stood next to him. Clank soon was down, with almost half of the ship standing and watching, nearly a hundred people. "Early this morning I was informed that a majority of the BoS and Minutemen soldiers and engineers will be pulling out." Edward could hear some murmuring, though to him this wasn't unexpected, ship was almost done what he heard next however had him worried. "The reason being. Military build up of Gunner forces on the border. They believe they might attack soon and we are dangerously close to the fighting."

"So when are we getting towed out then." Someone yelled.

"Not anytime soon." There was no a low rumble of worried voices, Edward knew they'd be a sitting duck.

"Which is why, after consideration I have a plan. I was informed by a fellow crew member that in the bandit lands lies a small town, it houses two ships that could help pull us out and get us to start our journey. All we need, is someone willing to steal them."

Edward heard more than one person scoff at the idea. He knew it wasn't the best idea but from what he can tell, they were going to be getting any help from anyone else anytime soon.

"With that said I'm asking if anyone is willing to help steal these ships, I'm not going to force anyone but without them we're stuck here. So if anyone wants to step up now's the time." Everyone gave it a quick thought and it didn't take long for more than a few people to step up. What surprised him was that the BoS stepped forward as well. Not wanting any Brotherhood goons having all the fun Edward stepped forward as well.

Helena watched as a few people stepped forward for the mission, as much as she would have liked to go with them she knew she couldn't cause she wasn't a fighter herself that was until Aisen stepped forward. "Jack what are you doing?"

"I'm volunteering for the mission." He said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Something to do? Way I figure if we don't get the boats to tow this all was for not. Besides there's not much for me to do." He said with a child like grin and a shrug of his shoulders. Rolling her eyes she stepped forward as well.

"Well you're going to need someone who can patch you us," she said with a light smirk. "I don't want to be marrying a corpse now."

"Thanks?"

"What it sounded funnier in my head." She with a shrug.

Clank looked over the group of volunteers, roughly fifteen joined up, counting Elenore of course. Of the fifteen, eight stuck out. There was the botanist, young girl, a BoS engineer who was rather quick to join, a boy with a mongrel who eyed the BoS girl with contempt, a man who wore a full set of spike armor that hid his face from view, a couple, or Clank thought they were a couple by the way they held each other hand. A rather tall hispanic man who looked rather calm but in his eyes Clank saw he was just bored. Another quiet man though this time Clank saw he was passively looking all around him, his head sometimes turning towards the exit or his eyes stopping and staring at something shiny or expensive looking.

"I wish to thank all of you who volunteered for this mission. You already know the plan. So I'm going to hand this time over to Elenore who was the one to inform of the boats." With that Clank stepped down and began to let Elenore speak.

"Thank you." She said with a smile. "Down the Charles river, several miles inside the bandit lands exists a small outpost town on the river. Its a trading hub for the local region. Its run by a man who was once a pirate that had several ships at his command, after a while he grew bored and had more treasure then he'd ever need. So he set up shot riverside by an old department store and that's how the town grew. Now he loves those damned ships and upgraded them and keeps them in working order best he can. All we have to do is steal the boats and get them to Northern Star. Any questions?"

"Um yeah? How though." someone asked.

"He has a point." Jackdaw said. "Taking the ship not going to be easy, raiders like him are going to be organized on the level of a merc or tribal clan. The boats are going to be guarded and possible booby trapped. Probably even not having the key in the ignition so how do you plan on doing this heist?" Elenore smirked as the man nerve to interrupt her, though truth she only had an idea of what to do.

"For the most part I hoped to sneak aboard and kill some of the crew while the rest of us cause a distraction in the town to draw out more guards. Not the most complex but I think it'd work. But its the best plan I have at the moment and if I'm correct we don't have long before the Gunners attack so we have to make do with what we got. Its going to take us several days to travel to the town, we can come up with a more concrete plan along the way." When she was finished she stepped back and mentioned to Clank.

"This mission is time sensitive, so I'm sorry for throwing you all into the fire on such short notice but I'm sure all of you will be able to pull it off. Good luck."

 **And the adventure continues, I'm glad to be back after a while and I hope all of you like the chapter, tell what you think and sorry if all of you didn't get to see your character act, I have more plan so stay tuned.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Sixteen**

Jack Honiton, or Jackdaw gathered up his gear which wasn't a lot for the old raider, just an ornate hunting rifle, a snub nose revolver and a machete, but it's all he needed. He wasn't fully keen on the idea of going into the bandit lands and stealing a couple of ships mostly being heists were never his thing and him trying to put the raider life behind him. But this was an important mission, if he ever wanted to leave and see the rest of the world he had to do this.

Therion was in a rare mood, he was actually excited for the mission. The prospect of stealing from an infamous pirate lord none the less was hated raiders with a passion, growing up in the Mojave he saw the damage they could inflict, none more so than Caesar's Legion. As for the crew, he was with he had no feeling towards, he didn't trust them but he didn't distrust them as well. Only time would tell. He didn't pack all of his gear as he figured he wouldn't need it, so he went with his katana, combat knife, nine millimeter and a sniper rifle, leaving the All American behind, as well as only bringing his combat gear minus the helmet.

Everyone met up at the makeshift camp packed and ready to go, though Clank wasn't going to go with them, he wanted to see them off and maybe give them one last word of encouragement. "I want to thank each and everyone one of you fordoing this. I know this mission will be dangerous and possible deadly so I wanted to say stay safe out there and watch each other's backs."

Enlonre stepped up and smiled. "Don't worry, we'll be back soon, ships in tow." With that said everyone waved goodbye and started on their journey which was dull as hell. Especially for Therion who was excited for the danger but now regretted the walk. They went west for a while until they reached the Charles river that was when the began the trek south. No one cared for the swamp but it was the only way past any Gunner patrol. Last thing they need is running into the most violent of the Gunners, and with war already on the horizon the site of a large group of armed people could go very wrong, very fast.

Cynthia trekked through the swamp at a snail's pace, a few hours ago they were back at the ship and now she was wet and muddy. It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have stopped by the Sommervile place, she was curious how the man there could raise some great crops despite being in a poor farming area but it didn't matter. Another thing she dislikes was the fact that none of the plants seem all that special or useful. It was mostly reeds and a wild Murfriut but past that most of the stuff wasn't even usable. Clouds were over head, and they were darking. It would rain soon. Not wanting to get caught in the rain for atleast fear of increasing their chances of getting sick Cynthia began to run towards Elnore who was taking charge at the moment with being the closest thing any of them had to a leader. She loudly splashed the water as she moved towards the ghoul, earning her death glares from many of her companions but as she was next to Elenore a sudden burst of shyness and timidness was brought on when she just saw how intimidating she really was. Swallowing her fear she took a deep breath.

"Ms Elenore, can I speak with you." Cythinia said trying not to run away from fear. The ghoul did not stop or even turn to the younger however but kept truging through the water but she did however speak, in a cold, even emotionless voice.

"What the fuck do you want?" Cynthia was taken aback by the sheer rudeness and vulgarity of that but she did not show it however knowing it would only encourage more.

"It's about to rain soon, I know it's going to take a couple of days but its going to rain soon." To make her point Cythia pointed as the darkening sky. "I think we should find a home or something to rest up in, least to avoid the coming rain."

Elnore looked up and the sky, she was right it was going to rain soon and the swamp would be alot harder to traverse and the risk for the smooth skins of getting sick was great and the last thing she wanted was to babysit a bunch of whining babies who got the sniffles. "Alright people. Next safe and dry place you see speak up, we'll wait out the storm there." Luckily for them it was long until they came across an old motel in the swamp. It was prewar and looked cheap and run down, even before the bombs fell but it would have to do. Elnore pointed to two men, both young causian though one she could get a good look at his face as he covered it with his helmet, the other one was plain save for his eyes which were voilet, must be a mutation would like a sample she thought. "You two, scout out the motel. We'll stay back and wait."

Walker nodded his head and the man who he learned was Jack, from the conversations he over heard with who he assumed was his wife or something similar made their way towards the old motel. They crouched down and slowly crept forward, Walker didn't mind keeping low even when he could feel, or sense the water splash against his opening. His Synth components wouldn't be damaged though they might smell so he'd have to wash them later, he watched Jack copy him though he was sure it was him trying to look cool in front of his girl which caused Walker to roll his eyes. As they got closer Walker kept an eye out for anything that could indicate if a creature or person had passed by in any recent time but since they were in a swamp that was hard to do. They were no tracks he could follow, nothing but the occasional reed patches he could use to see if anything was disterped, the only saving grass was how hard it was to be quiet but that worked both ways. Even as Walker and Jack attempted to be quiet the sound of water splashing or he vacuum caused when they stepped in mud and pulled out was still there if at best slightly muffled.

Jack kept moving hey had his blade a revoulatary sword he 'borrowed' from a mueseum at the ready though when they got to the front they were presently surprised to find more if not all of the door to the motel barred from the outside. Not uncommon, the semi sucken parking lot was also a god send as he was finally out of the mud. Walker, the strange man was with him pondering what to do next.

"Help me." He said.

"Huh?"

"Help me pry off the wood, I want to go into the main lobby maybe get the keys to the door."

"Of course." The two went to the side building which was obviously the check in area and using Walkers assaultron blade pried off the wood. With the two men's strength it wasn't that hard. The wood flew off revealing a door that had glass in it. Jack was about to enter but Walker quickly stopped him.

"You don't know what's in there and besides the area could be toxic if the rooms been sealed tight for this long give it a minute before you follow me."

"Wait if the airs toxic then?"

"I have a mask." Walker lied. "Just give me a few moments to check, after its aired out for a minute and has good flow follow me." Jack did not argue he stepped back and let the man in.

If the air was toxic then Walker wouldn't have to worry, he lied about the mask in truth he wanted a moment to uncover his face, and look around. He took off his helmet careful not to rip off any more skin and wander around the lobby. It was dark but he could see fine enough. There wasn't much coffee on the coffee table a magazine or two, he went to the front desk and looked for keys, he checked the drawers first and didn't find anything and thinking that hell they could have been dropped on the floor he knelt down and noticed there was a little alcove under the table, a pocket of sorts. He felt it and found the keys. That was quick and easy but as he heard someone come in he jumped up and quickly put on his helmet. He was tempted to draw his weapon but when he saw it was just jack he calmed down.

"Did you find anything?" Jack asked.

"Just the keys, there's nothing really here."

"What about the computer? Aren't you curious who was staying here." To be honest Walker did not really realise to look at it mostly because of what's the point but he complied with Jack if atleast to quench his obvious curiosity. Walker proceed to turn on the old computer and found five entries, one was guest which said mayor Lindinburg and an unknown woman, next was a family or at least a father and daughter and two strange suits, what that meant was anyone guest. The other two entries was that the suits were really some police were setting up a sting operation for a prostitution ring, nothing special though the next entry was after the war, two days and spoke how a few maids, the cops and father and daughter were going to try to find somewhere safe, spoke how people were hiding out in the sewers and metro to escape some of the radiation but the owners were going to hang back and board up the place to prevent looters but they were leaving a stash of goods in one of the rooms, just some MREs and weapon parts incase anyone returns.

"Alright let's get everyone over here, we'll pry the wood off the doors and unlock them." Jack nodded his head and ran out.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Seventeen**

Dark is the Swamp

Dead it seems

But alive with secretes..it gleans?

"Fuck barely three lines in and I'm coming up blanks. Hey Jackie got any ideas?" The mongrel yawn and only curled itself up and began to sleep. Edward yawned himself, not wanting to go to bed just yet he felt his body get tired and his eyes starting to get heavy that was until he heard screaming from the next room over.

"Will you keep that damned tinkering to a minimum you blasted Brotherhood cunt."

"Fuck you ghoulie I'm doing basic matience on my gear so piss off, better yet go get feraled." And that became a screaming match, which as before Edward would enjoy hearing the BoS girl getting yelled at before not as the cost of his sleep.

A whore screams

A dead woman moans

Anger flows through her body

Hatred grows in her mind

Bitter Enemies

Now sharing clothes of allies

He smirked at that one as door slams shut, with a final bitch throw out. Edward got up from his bed roll and watched as the BoS soldier girl, Nicole her name was just spout out an angry rant. Edward started to snicker at the girls pain.

"Who does that stupid ghoulie bitch think she is!" she screamed.

"I'd be quiet if I were you." A voice said calmly and coldly. Nicole turned and saw it was the doctor, she was sitting in a land chair holding her weapon and looking out to the swamp, next to her was someone holding her hand. Young man he did the same.

"Oh and whys that." Nicole shot back.

"Well you could alert something to our presence. I understand you and the good doctor Elenore-"

"Don't call it by its name, it's not even a person." Nicole spat.

"That was a bit rude." Aisen said.

"I don't care if it's rude!" Nicole's voice began to rise, how can these people even think that ghoul of all things is a person and deserves respect! She may be leading this operation but it didn't mean she had to like it, the only reason why she came along was to ditch the Brotherhood.

"Alright come down lady, Helena's right though. We don't know what's out here and we don't want it attacking us while we sleep. For all we know there's a tribe of raiders wearing ghillie suits approaching us with spears." Just as soon as Aisen said that a spear flew out of the tall grass and just missed the trio. There was yelling coming from the swamp. Helena turned to look at Aisen and gave him a look that said 'really!' He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well um I hope that a meteor doesn't or does come down and crush them?"

"We're under attack!" Nicole called out.

Therion jumped out of his bedroll he hear the yelling, when he got to the window he saw it. Raiders were coming out of the swamp. They wore a suit made of reed and dirt, carried weapons, highly primitive ones at that. Spears, clubs, a few had pipe weapons as well, mostly revolver and revolver. They were screaming in a tongue that Therion had never heard before which if he had to guess was some bastardization of english, or some other language as it sounded rough and unnatural. He went for his weapon, sniper rifle and opened his window. None of the raiders noticed him and he took aim, boom. Ones head exploded, then another and another. For a moment this terrified them before a spear landed and almost hit him in the head. He ducked behind cover rushing for his Nine millimeter when suddenly a man climbed into his room. Therion raised his weapon and was prepared to fire but he had to roll out of the way as the man brought down a club made from bone. It nearly smashed into his leg, surely with enough to break it. When Therion aimed again the man swung his club knocking the gun out of his hand, causing it to fire. Hitting a wall to an adjacent room. Seeing no other option Therion rolled out of the way one last time before rolling over the primitive spear. Seeing no other option Therion picked up the spear and thrusted into the Raider. The man screamed in agony and the scream only grew louder when Therion pulled it out as he saw the tip was hooked and it pulled out its far share of gut and other meat. "Fucking gross."

"Gaagh." The raider screamed at the top his lung and raised his club. "Dei Dri Landar." Therion calmly thrusted the spear one last time piercing the man heart.

A bullet came through wall almost hitting Cynthia, she screamed in fear but gathered her medical supplies. She was certain there be many wounded, possible dead after this attack and she wanted to help save as many as she could. She had some healing balm as well as a few disinfectents and leaves that could numb the pain. She was tempted to take a weapon for self deffense but felt wrong. Hurting others while trying to heal some felt...evil in a way so didn't take a single weapon as she ran out of the room. The whole area was in a panic, luckily it wasn't hard to tell who to advoid as the bandis or whatever were because all of them wearing some sort suit made from the swamp plants. Cymthia stayed in the shadows hidden waiting for someone know need some help and it didn't take long. A man, she didn't know fell the ground, an arrow in his shoulder. Cynthia rushed towards him and pulled him away from the battlefield. "God shit!"

"It's going to be fine. The arrow didn't go deep." She pulled out the arrow and with one hand she put some pressure on the wound with the other.

"AAHHHH!" He screamed. Cynthia shuddered at his cries but only took a deep breath. She grab some whisky from her bag. She poured the liquid over the man's wounds and he screamed even louder yet she kept going. When she was sure it was disinfected enough she gave him some of it to drink which he did as if a baby sucking on his mothers tits. He winced at the pain but it was dulled enough. The battle was coming to an end, luckily. The raiders lost this fight many of their fighters were dead or dying. A few tried to grab the wounded only to be gunned down. That actually disturbed Cynthia a little bit to be honest. Just seemed cruel but she had no tears to shed, she was sure her eyes would water soon enough at those she could not save.

"You Brotherhood lady help me move him inside. He needs to lie down in some place clean...er." Nicole glared but sighed and helped pick him up and the two went back into the Motel.

Walker watched as the Brotherhood girl helped the medic, it was strange to watch and almost like a sign of the end but he did nonetheless if anything out of a curiosity of why such a person would help another.

 **A/N Sup**


End file.
